No religious union in Georgia willing to get legal person of public law status

PanARMENIAN.Net - No religious union addressed the public register to acquire a status of the legal person of public law. According to Georgia’s public register, no official application to the purpose was submitted, Georgia Online reported.

Georgian parliament introduced amendments to Civil Code, granting the status of legal persons of public law to 5 religious units - Armenian Apostolic Church, Roman Catholic Church, the Muslim community, the Jewish community and the Baptist church in Georgia.

Law of Georgia defines a legal person of public law as an organization separated from the state bodies, created by the relevant law, enact of the President of Georgia or by the administrative act of state bodies, adopted on the basis of law, which conducts political, state, social, educational, cultural and other public activities. The issue of Armenian Apostolic Church status is in the agenda of the Armenian-Georgian relations. Within the visit of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians to Georgia, the Georgian side offered to provide Georgian Orthodox Church in Armenia the same rights as the Armenian Apostolic Church has in Georgia.

“This law is both significant and dangerous. The legislators must think of consequences the law may have in some ten, hundred years. We lack analytical thinking. Analysis is made before action and not after that,” said the Catholicos Ilia II.