“If the Law on Self-Governance takes effect, it will disintegrate Georgia”, - Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II said after a sermon at the Svetitskoveli cathedral.

His Holiness touched upon the issue of self-governance code among other issues.

"Our parliament and government are considering the self-governance issue today. This is a very difficult question. If the law takes effect, it will disintegrate Georgia. We will never put up with this and will do our best to ensure that it is not fulfilled. Georgia had always been and will be a united country. We should remember that when the government was strong, the entire country was strong. In our opinion, each district should be directly related to our government. The government should be aware of the problems that exist in the region. The government should discuss problems of each region. Our government should be trying to solve the problems that exists in certain regions. Some try to adopt the law immediately. In our opinion, this should be discussed by the entire nation. Society should discuss about what is acceptable for the country. Therefore, there is no need to hurry. The nation should become familiar with the law. I want to address our parliament and government with great respect and to tell them to take into account this danger and not to hurry in adoption of the law,"  - the Patriarch said.

He also talked about the problems of mountain villages and noted that the mountain region is gradually being emptied.

"We should create conditions in mountain regions so that people no longer want to leave them. I want to ask our government to pay attention to the mountains and to do everything to ensure that the people in the mountains are satisfied," - Ilia the Second said.