Jesus Christ Organised Attack On The Gays, Not We - Says Priest

One of two Orthodox priests charged with violently disrupting an anti-homophobia rally in Tblisi on May 17 claimed at a court hearing on Friday that the affray had been instigated by Jesus Christ.



Father Antimoz Bichinashvili told reporters:

We are accused of disrupting this rally and subjecting its participants to violence, but it isn't so. We weren't the organisers. Everything happened spontaneously. It was probably God's will. If someone was the organiser, it was Jesus Christ.

His co-accused is Irakly Basilay, and according to this report, the Tbilisi City Court scheduled a hearing of the case for July 15.

According to the authorities, the priests are accused of "obstructing the rally and subjecting protesters to violence", a crime punishable by a fine or up to two years in prison.

Hundred of anti-gay protesters, including a sizeable gang of priests, attacked a few dozen gays who took part in the rally. Some are alleged to have threatened rally participants with bunches of stinging nettles.

Meanwhile, it is reported here that Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, has the hump with the EU over gay rights.



Metropolitan Hilarion The Moscow Patriarchate is concerned that the administration of the European Union has taken "an ultra-liberal" stance on moral issues. Hilarion said:

Unfortunately, the administration of the European Union has recently taken anti-church and anti-Christian positions on some issues.

As an example, Hilarion cited developments in the UK and France:

Where laws making same-sex unions equal to traditional marriage are being passed despite mass protests. These processes alarm us very much. The EU administration is forcing anti-Christian norms on all EU countries. Some countries manage to repel these attacks, and some can't.

Hilarion warned that the conflict of ideologies "which is now present in the EU countries and which was caused by artificial forcing of some anti-Christian norms on the entire population of the EU will resonate in different countries in various forms"



Uk Express