Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri) elected Catholicos‑Patriarch Shio III of Georgian Orthodox Church
On May 11 the Holy Synod elected Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri) as the new Catholicos‑Patriarch, receiving 22 of the 39 votes and succeeding the late Ilia II. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, former Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, several political parties and Russia’s Patriarch Kirill publicly congratulated the choice (Netgazeti). Civil.ge added that Shio had served as Ilia II’s locum tenens since 2017, a detail not mentioned by Netgazeti, while Netgazeti provided a detailed vote breakdown that Civil.ge did not.