Ex-PM Ivanishvili: Taboo Church topics should be criticized

Georgia must overcome social barrier and discuss Church issues that are currently deemed taboo subjects, says former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Ivanishvili made this announcement when he was asked by a journalist about his opinion of the controversial speech made by Georgia’s Patriarch in his Christmas Epistle.

In the Christmas Epistle, the Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II spoke negatively about abortion, artificial in vitro insemination and surrogacy.

"Society has to overcome the barriers that the Church topics are taboo and it is exaggerated as it is said that these topics are irreproachable and inviolable. Neither the Patriarch personally nor the Church needs this, thus providing a bad service for the church,” Ivanishvili said.

He said the Church and society had "the same problems” and consequently, the attitude that church topics were taboo subjects was "insulting to society”. Ivanishvili believed the Church should be criticized like any other institution.

"If we would like to improve anything we have to discuss it. [The Patriarch’s Christmas Epistle] provoked turmoil in society. Anyone can make a mistake, even the Patriarch. He could express his opinion on some issues and we are allowed to disagree, it is normal.”

The question was asked at a press conference dedicated to explaining Ivanishvili’s new non-Governmental organization (NGO) Citizen.