Church Says Faces ‘Slander Campaign’ by ‘Hostile Forces’

His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II

23/12/09

In a strongly-worded statement the Georgian Orthodox Church said “hostile forces” were engaged in the campaign of “slander and insult” against the Church and warned it would have to take unspecified “appropriate steps” if the campaign continued.

“It is unfortunate that media sources, which are under the authorities control, are also taking part in this process,” Holy Synod, the Church’s main governing body, said in a statement after a meeting on December 23.

Recently the Georgian Orthodox Church has once already publicly criticized one of Georgia’s national television stations, Imedi, for spreading “groundless” information about the Church, but it is the first time when the Church uses the term “government-controlled media sources.”

“Anti-church campaign harms first and foremost the state, because it is an attempt to split the society.”

“If these processes further continue this way, we will have to undertake appropriate steps in order to protect dignity of our Church and the nation,” the statement says.

“There are forces, which do not want the unity of the Church; which do not want protection of national and moral values. They call for seeding pseudo-liberalism, pseudo-culture and religious indifference and use all kind of deception and insult to make people lose love and trust towards the Church.”

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