Armenia's parliament sets up inquiry into "crisis" in the Armenian Apostolic Church; Etchmiadzin rejects government report urging Catholicos's removal

Armenia's National Assembly has set up an inquiry committee to examine what it calls "the crisis that has arisen within the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church as a result of the activities of a number of its clergy." Speaker Ruben Rubinyan announced it in a statement on Friday, Oct. 2, Armenpress and PAN.am reported. The statement says the committee was formed automatically under parliament's rules of procedure after at least one-quarter of lawmakers requested it. Lawmakers will set the number of members at the next regular sitting. Arusyak Manavazyan, head of the governing Civil Contract faction, has said lawmaker Arman Yeghoyan of Civil Contract will chair it, according to PAN.am.

The committee follows a report published Sept. 24 by an information centre attached to the Prime Minister's Office. The report says it was prepared on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's instructions. It lists 16 issues it describes as evidence of a crisis in the Church, including alleged financial opacity and disciplinary practices, The Armenian Weekly reported. As a first step it proposes a reform group of clergy and laypeople. As a second step it proposes the "removal of the de facto head" of the Church, PAN.am reported. The government uses "de facto head" for Catholicos Karekin II. Pashinyan said the report showed the Church had been "seized" by the Catholicos, whom he called by his birth name, and by his supporters. The government rejects accusations that it is attacking the Church and says it is addressing institutional problems and accountability, The Armenian Weekly reported.

The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin rejected the report as unconstitutional, anti-canonical and unlawful. It called the report's publication by a government body interference in the Church's internal life, and said reform cannot be imposed through political pressure. Christian Solidarity International, a Swiss-based religious-freedom group, also rejected the report. A Church priest, Fr. Gabriel Vardanyan, said questions about the Catholicos's tenure belong to the Church's own canonical bodies.

Separately, Karekin II and six bishops face a criminal case over the alleged obstruction of a court order. At a Sept. 18 hearing in Armavir, the defence asked the court to end the prosecution. A ruling on that request is due Oct. 30, PAN.am reported.