Patriarch’s Christmas epistle strictly criticized

The Georgian Patriarchs controversial Christmas statement has drawn harsh criticism from society members and officials.

In his epistle, Ilia II highlighted the Churchs strong opposition to surrogacy, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization, and suggested families with children born by surrogate mothers will not be happy.

"Those children born through artificial insemination will be problematic too, read the message.

The Georgian Minister of Health Davit Sergeenko said the experts who provided the Patriarch with these recommendations were supposed to make a deeper analysis of the topic before the speech was made.

Sergeenko noted that in vitro fertilization was launched 36 years ago but this method still posed questions in religious and bioethical perspectives.

"Fertilizing several eggs at a time but eventually keeping only one (or more) of them alive is something the medical societies still cannot agree on, the Health Minister said.

Despite this, the issue was addressed in the Christmas epistle in a way that could cause marginalization, he added.

The same opinion was shared by the Public Defender of Georgia Ucha Nanuashvili.

"Such a statement can encourage discrimination towards children born through surrogacy or artificial fertilization and this can end up leaving these children stigmatized and marginalized in the future.

Nanuashvili added that this statement could have offended many people, including the families who have babies born these ways.

The Ombudsman said according to the 2^nd article of the Convention on the Right of the Child, the state was obliged to protect any child regardless of how they were born.

The Georgian Constitution calls for a clear separation between church and state. However, the Georgian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Ilia II enjoy the highest favorability ratings (about 93%) in almost all Georgian public polls and surveys.

After the Patriarchs epistle went public, the Georgian Prime Ministers advisor Tamar Chugoshvili wrote on her Facebook page that she wished a happy Christmas especially to "those absolutely amazing children who were born through surrogacy or artificial insemination, also to their families, surrogate mothers, and all kind of minorities.

"Although except for an ethnically Georgian, Orthodox, heterosexual man who was fertilized in a natural way, everyone turns out to be incomplete. I wish a Merry Christmas to them too, the Prime Ministers advisor wrote.

In this message, Chugoshvili referred to the part in the Patriarchs epistles which said a man was "a guardian and breadwinner and a woman was "responsible for housekeeping and raising children.

"And even if it may seem impossible, a woman should obey [her] husband based on Gods commandments (but it does not imply obedience in wrong and sinful actions), the epistle said.

After all these discussions, the Patriarchate made a statement to explain the churchs position on surrogacy and artificial insemination.

"Some of the people concluded that the church was against the children born through surrogacy or artificial insemination, which is completely absurd. On the contrary, these children need more warmth, love, and praying from the church. That is why some of such children had been baptized by the Patriarch and nothing is surprising about this. But it does not mean that this method [surrogacy and artificial insemination] is acceptable. We would like to note that all the traditional religions are against this and consider it a sin, the Patriarchates latest statement read.

It also said that the church had to warn society when they did wrong.

Despite this statement, people who oppose these ideas have taken to social media to organize a protest in front of the Patriarchate.