Today, as we speak with pride of our country’s Christian traditions, we must express our deepest gratitude to our spiritual father, His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, who revived the Georgian Orthodox Church and restored autocephaly to our Mother Church. Such a statement the Prime Minister of Georgia made at the ceremonial event dedicated to Georgia’s Independence Day.

"Just as Saint Ilia the Righteous did before him, Ilia II expressed in three words the paramount values upon which every Georgian’s sense of identity must be founded: "God, Motherland, Man". Experience has taught us that all patriotism and humanism which is not grounded in the fear of God and in faith is false.

It is precisely patriotism and humanism founded upon faith in the Lord that is the force which has carried us through so many trials in the past, and which will carry us through every trial in the future… With deep reverence, I greet His Holiness and Beatitude Shio III, a Catholicos-Patriarch of rare distinction, elevated by the will of the Lord, by the testament of Ilia II, and with the support of the Holy Synod.

I wish His Holiness and Beatitude that his ministry may serve as the foundation for yet another remarkable epoch in the history of our Mother Church", - said Irakli Kobakhidze.