View source for Catholic Church in Georgia

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{{About|the country|Catholicism in the U.S. state|Georgia (U.S. state)#Religion}}
{{Catholic Church by country}}
[[File:Catholic Church in Georgia.svg|thumb|The Coat of Arms of Catholic Church in Georgia]]
The '''Catholic Church in Georgia''', since the 11th-century [[East–West Schism]], has been composed mainly of [[Latin Church]] Catholics; a very large community of the [[Armenian Catholic Church]] has existed in Georgia since the 18th century.

A small [[Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics|Georgian Greek Catholic]] community has existed for a number of centuries, though has never constituted an autonomous ''[[sui iuris]]'' [[particular Church|Church]]. This was never established as a recognized [[particular church]] of any level (exarchate, ordinariate, etc.), within the communion of Catholic Churches, and accordingly has never appeared in the list of [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] published in the ''[[Annuario Pontificio]]''.

== History ==
Christianity in Georgia began in earnest with the [[evangelization]] by [[Saint Nino]] in the 4th century. [[Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church|Georgian Orthodox Christianity]] then developed in the Byzantine Orthodox tradition, although contact with Rome did occur. The [[East–West Schism]] did not immediately sever communion between Georgia and the [[Holy See]], although the break was recognized by the mid-[[13th century]].

Around this time, Catholic missionaries became active in Georgia, setting up small Latin communities. A [[Latin Church]] diocese was established at [[Tbilisi]] in 1329, but this was allowed to lapse after the appointment of the fourteenth and last of its line of bishops in 1507, owing to few numbers of Catholics.
[[File:De Castelli. Missions savane in Samegrelo.jpg|thumb|Catholic missions residence in [[Mingrelia]]. A sketch from the album of the contemporaneous [[Roman Catholic]] missionary [[Cristoforo Castelli]].]]
In 1626, the [[Theatine]] and [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] orders established new missions in Georgia. In the following centuries a community of Latin Catholics began to form, members of this community commonly being referred to as "French", which was the dominant nationality of the missionaries. Both orders were expelled by [[Nicholas I of Russia|Tsar Nicholas I]] in 1845.

However, an agreement between [[Pope Pius IX]] and [[Tsar]] Nicholas I in 1848 permitted the establishment of the Latin [[Diocese of Tiraspol (Russia)|Diocese of Tiraspol]]. This was based in Russia, but all Transcaucasian Catholics, including ethnic Georgians, were aggregated to it. The Russian part of that diocese is now called [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Clement at Saratov|Saint Clement in Saratov]].

Towards the end of the 19th century, some Georgian Catholics wished to use the [[Byzantine Rite]] in [[Old Georgian]], but were thwarted by the outlawing of Byzantine "[[Eastern Catholic Churches|Uniate]]" groups. Accordingly, since the tsars forbade their Catholic subjects to use the Byzantine Rite after the [[Synod of Polotsk]] of 1839 –and the Holy See did not promote its use among the Georgians–some clergy and laity adopted the [[Armenian Rite]].

At [[Istanbul]] in 1861, ethnic Georgian and former [[Mekhitarists|Mekhitarist]] priest Fr. [[Peter Kharischirashvili]] founded the first two [[religious congregation]]s of the [[Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics|Georgian Greek Catholic Church]]; the [[Servites of the Immaculate Conception]], one for men and the other for women. They served Georgian Catholics living in the [[Ottoman Empire]] and elsewhere in the [[Georgian diaspora]], like at [[Montaubon]], [[France]]. Both congregations survived until the late 1950s. The building that housed the male congregation of the Servites, Fery-Quoa, still stands in [[Istanbul]], but is now in private ownership. Their clergy gave Georgian Catholics in Constantinople the possibility to worship in the [[Byzantine Rite]] in [[Old Georgian]], but, as is common for Eastern Catholics without a Hierarchy of their own, they were under the authority of the local Latin Catholic bishop. 

The [[Georgian nationalism|Georgian nationalist]], Catholic priest, and political emigre Fr [[Michel Tamarati]] was the first to study the history of Catholicism in Georgia, eventually producing the oft-cited {{lang|fr|L'Église géorgienne des origines jusqu'à nos jours}} in French in 1911.<ref name="Rapp151">Rapp, Stephen H. (2010), "Georgian Christianity", [https://books.google.com/books?id=fWp9JA3aBvcC&dq=Tamarati%20Blackwell&pg=PA151 p. 151], in ''The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity'' (Parry, K., ed.). Blackwell Publishing Ltd, {{ISBN|978-0-631-23423-4}}.</ref>

Some Georgian nationalists associated the Georgian identity with the Orthodox faith and Catholics were called ''French'' to underline that they were not true Georgians.<ref>{{Citation |last=Sabanadze |first=Natalie |title=Chapter 4. Globalization and Georgian Nationalism |date=2013-01-23 |url=http://books.openedition.org/ceup/573 |work=Globalization and Nationalism : The Cases of Georgia and the Basque Country |pages=67–114 |access-date=2023-10-25 |series=CEUP collection |place=Budapest |publisher=Central European University Press |language=en |isbn=978-963-386-006-9}}</ref>

[[File:Tbilisi Catholic Mass.jpg |thumb|upright=1.2|left|Catholic Christmas mass in Tbilisi]]

Only after the granting of religious freedom during the [[Russian Revolution of 1905]] did some Georgian Catholics resume the Byzantine Rite, without reaching the stage of having a [[Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites|particular church]] established for them.

At the outbreak of the [[First World War]], Georgian Catholics were some 50,000. About 40,000 of these were of Latin, the others were mainly [[Armenian Catholic Church|Armenian Catholics]]. Canonically, they depended on the Latin Diocese of Tiraspol, which had its headquarters at [[Saratov]] on the [[Volga River]].

In the brief period of [[Democratic Republic of Georgia|Georgian independence]] between 1918 and 1921, some influential Georgian Orthodox expressed interest in reunification with the [[Holy See]], and an envoy was sent from the Vatican in 1919 to examine the situation. As a result of the onset of the [[Russian Civil War|civil war]] and the [[Red Army invasion of Georgia|Soviet invasion]], this came to nothing.

In 1920, it was estimated that of 40,000 Catholics in Georgia, 32,000 were Latins and the remainder of the Armenian Catholics.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-bodypg.aspx?eccpageID=77&IndexView=toc |title=䍎䕗䄠☣ㄵ〻⁅慳瑥牮⁃慴桯汩挠䍯浭畮楴楥猠坩瑨潵琠䡩敲慲捨楥 |website=www.cnewa.org |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060622000403/http://www.cnewa.org/ecc-bodypg.aspx?eccpageID=77&IndexView=toc |archive-date=22 June 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to Fr Christopher Zugger, nine Servite missionaries from Constantinople, headed by Exarch [[Shio Batmanishvili]], came to the newly independent [[Democratic Republic of Georgia]] to permanently establish Catholicism of the [[Byzantine Rite]] in [[Old Georgian]] there, and by 1929 their faithful had grown to 8,000.{{sfn | Zugger | 2001 | p=213}} Their mission came to an end with the arrests of Shio and his priests by the [[Soviet secret police]] in 1928, their imprisonment in the [[Gulag]] at [[Solovki prison camp]], and their subsequent murder by [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[NKVD]] at [[Sandarmokh]]{{sfn | Zugger | 2001 | p=236}} in 1937.{{sfn | Zugger | 2001 | p=259}}

== Organisation ==
[[File:Catholic church in Tbilisi 02.jpg|thumb|[[St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Tbilisi]].]]
After the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]], a Latin [[apostolic administration]] (pre-diocesan jurisdiction) of the [[Apostolic Administration of the Caucasus|Caucasus]] was established on 30 December 1993, with headquarters in the Georgian capital [[Tbilisi]], with a territory including Georgia, [[Armenia]] and, until 2001, [[Azerbaidjan|Azerbaijan]]. Since 1996 this has been headed by bishop [[Giuseppe Pasotto]], who arrived in Tbilisi in 1993 and has lived in Georgia ever since. In an interview with [[Aid to the Church in Need]], the bishop described the situation of the Catholic Church on his arrival, soon after the country had gained independence. "The only thing that was left of the Catholic Church was one open place of worship (the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Tbilisi). The communities that were scattered across rural areas had all been abandoned. The first thing we did was re-establish contact and then find additional priests from other countries and local churches to come and help us. And so we gradually began to rebuild the most important structures. It seems to me that the rosary saved the Catholic faith not only in Georgia, but in all Communist countries. The people came together in the houses to pray and the grandmothers were the ones who took responsibility."<ref>{{Cite web |last=ACN |date=2022-02-17 |title=Msgr. Pasotto: a protagonist in the rebuilding of the Catholic Church in Georgia after the Communist era |url=https://acninternational.org/msgr-pasotto-a-protagonist-in-the-rebuilding-of-the-catholic-church-in-georgia-after-the-communist-era/ |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=ACN International |language=en-US}}</ref> 
[[File:Tbilisi Catholical church St. Maria.png|thumb|[[Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin, Tbilisi]].]]
In the same interview, the bishop ranked ecumenical work as the main priority for the Church at present. "This is our first task and it is a very difficult one. Due to the legacy of its past, the [[Georgian Orthodox Church|Orthodox Church]] still has a hard time being open to this. The Catholics are well aware that they are a minority and often face discrimination and unfair treatment. You just need to remember the six churches that were confiscated and never given back, or the prohibition of interfaith marriages. The ecumenical path requires a great deal of patience and the constant search for new and potential opportunities for establishing relationships that could develop into bridges. Our university, where most of the students are non-Catholics, plays an important role in this."<ref>{{Cite web |last=ACN |date=2022-02-17 |title=Msgr. Pasotto: a protagonist in the rebuilding of the Catholic Church in Georgia after the Communist era |url=https://acninternational.org/msgr-pasotto-a-protagonist-in-the-rebuilding-of-the-catholic-church-in-georgia-after-the-communist-era/ |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=ACN International |language=en-US}}</ref>

Armenian Catholic Georgians are in the care of the [[Ordinariate]] for [[Armenian Catholic]]s in [[Eastern Europe]], which was established on 13 July 1991, covering a vast area including [[Russia]] and [[Ukraine]], much vaster than Georgia, which has some 400,000 faithful in all (''[[Annuario Pontificio]]'' 2012).

Georgian Catholics of the Byzantine rite are said to have numbered 7,000 in 2005.

[[Theatine]] and [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] missionaries worked for reunion in Georgia, but under Imperial Russia in 1845, Catholics were not allowed to use the Byzantine Rite. Many Catholics adopted the [[Armenian Rite]] until the institution of religious liberty in 1905, which allowed them to return to the Byzantine Rite. In 1937, the Georgian Catholic [[exarch]], [[Shio Batmanishvili]] (or Batmalishviii), was executed by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]s.

== Demographics and major churches ==

In 2020, 85.84% of the population adhered to Christianity; 1% were Catholic.<ref>[https://www.thearda.com/world-religion/national-profiles?u=89c World Religion Database 2020 at the ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-03]</ref>  This is approximately 37,000 Catholics in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]].

They are mostly found either in [[Tbilisi]] or in the southern region of the country, where exclusively Catholic villages exist.  There are three Catholic churches in Tbilisi; the Cathedral of Our Lady in the old town, the parish church of Sts Peter and Paul, and Mar Shimon Bar Sabbae Assyrian Chaldean Catholic Church in Saburtalo. A [[Neocatechumenal Way]] mission involving priests, [[families in mission]] and lay persons has been present in Sts Peter and Paul church since 1991, helping and leading the parish.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |url=https://kartvelologybooks.tsu.ge/uploads/book/Religiebi_Saqartveloshi.pdf |title=Religion in Georgia |date=2008 |publisher= Public Defender of Georgia |editor-last=Kiknadze|editor-first=Zurab|location=Tbilisi|pages=190}}</ref>

The Catholics in Tbilisi are mostly [[Georgians]] and [[Armenians]], as well as a small [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] community of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church|Chaldean]] Rite.

This church also provides mass in English, catering for the growing Catholic expatriate population of [[United States|Americans]], [[European ethnic groups|Europeans]], [[Demographics of India|Indians]] and [[Maltese people|Maltese]].  There are only about 1000 practicing Catholics in Tbilisi.  Many other Catholic churches were confiscated by the Georgian Orthodox Church  after the fall of communism when the state gave all church property back to the Georgian Orthodox church.  Recently, a new seminary has been completed on the outskirts of [[Tbilisi]].

A Catholic church is also present in [[Sukhumi]], in [[Abkhazia]].  Other Catholic Churches are found in [[Vale, Georgia|Vale]], [[Akhaltsikhe]], [[Gori, Georgia|Gori]] and in [[Batumi]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |url=https://kartvelologybooks.tsu.ge/uploads/book/Religiebi_Saqartveloshi.pdf |title=Religion in Georgia |date=2008 |publisher= Public Defender of Georgia |editor-last=Kiknadze|editor-first=Zurab|location=Tbilisi|pages=190}}</ref>

[[Caritas Georgia]] is the formal charitable organisation of the Catholic Church in Georgia.

== See also ==
* [[Religion in Georgia (country)]]
* [[Christianity in Georgia (country)]]
* [[Freedom of religion in Georgia (country)]]
* [[List of Catholic dioceses in Georgia]]
* [[Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes Georgian Catholic church]] in Bomonti, [[Şişli]], Istanbul
* [[Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |last1=Zugger |first1=Rev Christopher Lawrence |title=The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin through Stalin |date=1 April 2001 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-0679-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnUnJ7X10BMC |language=en}}

== External links ==
* [http://catholicchurch.ge/ Official site for Catholics in Georgia]

{{Georgia (country) topics}}
{{Asia topic|Catholic Church in|groupstyle=background-color:gold|titlestyle=background-color:gold}}
{{Catholicism in Europe|state=collapsed}}
{{Asia topic|Christianity in}}

[[Category:Catholic Church in Georgia (country)| ]]
[[Category:Eastern Catholic Churches]]
[[Category:Catholic Church by country|Georgia]]