Georgian Catholic Church - Present Situation of The Georgian Catholic Church

Present Situation of The Georgian Catholic Church

After the collapse of the Soviet Union an apostolic administration (of Latin Rite) of the Caucasus was established on 30 December 1993, with headquarters in the Georgian capital, but with a territory greater than that of Georgia. It estimates the number of its faithful as 50,000, a number very similar to that given for Georgian Catholics of all rites in 1914. Georgians of Armenian Rite are in the care of the Ordinariate for Armenian Catholics in Eastern Europe, which was established on 13 July 1991. This ordinariate, which covers an area, including Russia and Ukraine, much vaster than Georgia, has some 400,000 faithful in all (Annuario Pontificio 2012).

Kevin R. Yurkus provides the following pertaining to the Georgian Byzantine Catholic Church:

Membership: 7,000

The Georgian Church began in 337 and used the Syriac Rite of St. James. When the neighboring Armenians rejected the Council of Chalcedon, the Georgians accepted the conciliar decrees and adopted the Byzantine Rite.

Theatine and 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 was executed by the Soviets.

At present, the Georgian Catholic Church has no organized hierarchy.