Georgia on the call of Orthodox priests boycotted the Mass of the Pope

The Georgian public, according to the appeal of the Orthodox priests, boycotted the Mass of the Pope Francis: he served in the stadium named after Mikhail Meskhi in Tbilisi from almost empty stands. According to DW , about 3 thousand out of 27 seats were filled at the stadium. On the eve of the pope, they met calls with calls to repent and renounce heresy.

For all 16 foreign trips of dad, this was the smallest Mass, Reuters notes.

The delegation from the Georgian Orthodox Church, as expected, was supposed to come to the ceremony in Tbilisi, but in the end did not participate. As the representative of the Vatican explained, the bishops of the Georgian Orthodox Church are forbidden to visit Catholic masses.

At the same time, the Primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church Elijah II not only ignored the event, but also called on the Orthodox not to come to the service. However, as the Russian Air Force service notes, in the same statement, the Georgian Patriarchate called the negative public statements of clergy about the pontiff unacceptable.

The secular leader of Georgia - President George Margvelashvili - came to the Mass.

On Friday, the pope of the Roman Francis in Tbilisi was met by a protest action. Its participants with posters "Vatican are a spiritual aggressor", "stay away from Georgia, the Antichrist" in English and Georgian lined up along the highway leading from the airport to the city.

According to the Vatican, 112 thousand Catholics live in Georgia - this is about 1% of the country's population. 84% of the population call themselves Orthodox.

After Tbilisi, dad is expected to go to Azerbaijan, and then return to Rome.