Archbishop Ieronymos

Athens, 15.04.2009

Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, in his Easter message, expressed a wish to the faithful “to meet the Risen Christ in their fellow human beings.”

“The Resurrection of Christ is a reminder of the light’s supremacy over darkness,” the Archbishop mentioned, adding that in this light “the individual is met with the true calling, which is none other than meeting God through helping other people — regardless of language, colour, religion and culture.”

“The clouds of the imminent economic crisis may cast a shadow over the prospects and future of many of our brothers but a much deeper crisis is experienced when we continue a provocatively indifferent stance toward our fellow human being,” he stressed.

Source: ANA-MPA

During a visit to Ionian island of Zakynthos yesterday, Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of the Church of Greece, warned yesterday that the Church has to redefine its message for contemporary society.

If today we do not, like [island patron saint] Saint Dionysios, give witness to the ecclesiastical truth in a spirit of humility, peace and unity, then we will be tragic and outdated figures of an atavistic past with an eccentric role in our popular and meaningless religious festivals.

In Kathimerini’s “Face to Face with Ourselves,” Nikos Konstandaras includes the Greek clergy in the long list of those culpable for the current anarchy on the streets of Athens. Continue reading →

What a beautiful country and what a heartbreaking spectacle of anarchy and self-hatred. A friend forwarded me this note that he received from a relative in Athens. The matter-of-fact closing line is revealing. Athenians have been coping with this malaise for a long, long time:

Every person you ask will have his own take on the riots/events in Greece/Athens, mine is the following:

What Greece faces is a situation were you no longer have a society. You have people who happen to be at the same place and everyone is going for his own with no regard to anything. The “System” is considered unfair & ineffective by almost all.

This attitude comes across in the quote: “work to eat and steal to have”

The situation is the result of the bureaucratic nature of the State, the statist ideology of the Country, and a System/attitude that does not reword work nor allows the most competitive bids to usually win.

Concerning specifics:

Karamanlis is not considered to be making money from graft; however, he is allowing corruption to take place and is not taking steps to change the system.

Foreigners are more involved in the looting because in general they are more active whenever it comes to making a buck.

Left-wingers are much more active in the riots because their ideology in Greece is more permissive to violence & stealing and they have an axe to grind with the “conservative” government.

Conservatives working in the private sector have been livid with this government for a while now for ridiculous delays in government payments (i.e state hospitals delay payments for three years), administrative decisions (ministerial permissions for investments to proceed, court decision etc.) and new taxation.

All the above help make the environment challenging.

Writing in England’s Guardian newspaper, Helena Smith asks, “How much tear gas can a nation take? How many stones can it collect?” Continue reading →