TBILISI, Georgia -- Pope Francis arrived in Georgia on Friday and immediately backed the government's demand that Georgians displaced by a 2008 war with Russia be allowed to return home, as geopolitical issues overshadowed a visit aimed at improving ties with Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
But Francis also received an unexpectedly warm welcome from the leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, who called him a "dear brother" and "Your Holiness" -- a sign that once-frosty relations between the two churches appeared to have warmed as Georgia seeks to enhance its European aspirations.
Francis was welcomed at the airport in Tbilisi, the capital, by Patriarch Ilia, leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church, President Giorgi Margvelashvili and hundreds of well-wishers waving Vatican flags.
A small protest by hard-line Orthodox faithful opposed to his visit took place outside the airport and outside the Chaldean Catholic church, toting banners that read: "The Vatican is a spiritual aggressor," and "Death of papism."
Later Friday, Francis was to issue an appeal for peace in Iraq and Syria. Francis has strongly condemned the recent assault by Russian and Syrian forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo and has warned that those responsible "will be held accountable before God."
In his early remarks Friday, Francis never once mentioned Russia or the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s. Russia effectively gained complete control over both regions after a war in 2008 with Georgia.
Georgia considers the territory "occupied" and has demanded that the more than 200,000 people displaced by the fighting be allowed to return home.
Francis backed Georgia's call, saying the region's different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups should be allowed to "coexist peacefully in their homeland, or to freely return to that land if for some reason they have been forced to leave it."
A 2014 U.N. report said authorities in control of South Ossetia and areas around it still continued to deny the return of ethnic Georgians to their former homes apart from one district. The report also spoke of South Ossetian de-facto authorities detaining Georgians crossing into the areas of their control, such as when farmers went to retrieve stray cattle.
Francis has been outspoken in denouncing the plight of refugees and insisting on their rights to both seek asylum abroad or to return home when security conditions permit. He has used many of his trips to press the point, praying for dead migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and bringing home with him a dozen Syrian refugees from Lesbos, Greece.
Georgia had wanted Francis to visit the frontier of the breakaway regions, but the Vatican declined. Georgia had also hoped Francis might use the term "occupation," but Francis stuck to his script, perhaps evidence of a reluctance to rile Russia and the Holy See's delicate relations with the Russian Orthodox Church.
In his speech, Margvelashvili denounced what he called Russia's "occupation" of his country and said the return of those uprooted from the conflict were the government's top priority.
Francis' call for peace and reconciliation are the main messages of the trip, but a more subtle one is that of steadily improving ties between the Holy See and the two former Soviet republics.
When St. John Paul II visited Georgia in 1999 to mark the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Catholic-Orthodox tensions were so high that the Georgian Orthodox Church urged its faithful to stay away from his Mass. Ilia referred to John Paul then as a head of state, not a religious figure.
But this time around, an official delegation from the Orthodox patriarchate will attend Francis' Mass on Saturday morning.
And in his welcome Friday, Ilia welcomed the pope in the name of all Georgians and the two sat in apparent silent prayer as a choir sang hymns in the Georgian patriarchate.
"May the Lord bless the Catholic Church of Rome," Ilia said.
Georgian analysts say the turn-around in the attitudes has nothing to do with personalities but with Georgia's geopolitical ambitions. Georgia is anxious to join NATO and is pursuing an eventual membership in the 28-nation European Union. The papal visit has been seen in Georgia as the government's attempt to win allies in Catholic nations in Europe.
The papal visit did trigger controversy, with some Georgian priests condemning the visit as an attempt to turn their flock into Catholics. Earlier this month, the ultra-conservative Union of Orthodox Parents picketed in front of the Vatican embassy in Tbilisi, urging Ilia not to meet with Francis.
The Georgian Church defended its decision to host the pope.
"We would like to stress that we view as unacceptable the negative statements made in public by some men of the cloth of the Georgian Orthodox Church regarding this official visit, and we urge them and everyone to be calm," the Georgian Orthodox Church said in a statement. "The pope is definitely conducting the Mass for Catholics, and we cannot consider this an act of proselytism."
Georgia is overwhelmingly Orthodox, and Catholics represent less than 3 per cent of the population. But residents both Catholic and Orthodox seemed pleased with Francis' visit to at least show a united Christian front against religious extremism.
"I think in the 21st century, when such things are happening in the world, when in many regions Christians face the threat of almost complete annihilation, we should all get united in order to protect peace," said Lali Sadatierashvili, a Catholic who was born and raised in western Georgia, where she had to hide her beliefs in Soviet times.
Bachuka Gelashvili, a 50-year-old engineer, waited Friday outside the Kashveti church for the pope's visit.
"Yes, there are people among us Orthodox who are against (the visit) but this is all church internal politics," Gelashvili said. "I am and will remain Orthodox, but it should not stop our contracts. We share the same God."
Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.
