The 2003 draft Agreement between the Holy See and Georgia and future prospects for cooperation

Abstract

In 2002, Georgia and the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalic Orthodox Church signed the Constitutional Agreement, which established a new legal model of the state–church relationship. After this event, Georgia and the Holy See drafted a special agreement that was supposed to be signed in September 2003. It was intended to give legal guarantees to the Catholic Church and Catholic believers. Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran arrived in Georgia on 18 September to sign the agreement, but at the last minute, the president of Georgia decided not to finalise the process. This draft was not known to society, and even researchers did not have access to the text. This article overviews that document and tries to analyse the perspectives of a future agreement between Georgia and the Holy See.