By Markos (Helleniscope’s Religion Commentator)
A. He insists that historically there has never been a time during his tenure where he recalls metropolitans having put their salary on the table as an issue to discuss with the government (Note: perhaps this is believable, because reminding ourselves of some financial scandals we have seen over the years, it becomes clear that they have plenty of “other opportunities” to abuse power and gain wealth if they so desire, at levels that make their salaries pale in comparison, once they are in a position of authority…Metropolitan Panteleimon of Attiki went to prison for “dipping” into the lucrative donations of the monastery of St. Ephraim, for example…)
B. He is openly suggesting in point #5, that this “salary increase” may be DIRECTLY RELATED to the fact that there is a National election “season” coming up, and the “open wound” of the “gay marriage” legislation that was passed by Mitsotakis with the help of his arch-rival leftist parties is still a hot topic for the Church and for Greek society at large.
Τί θά μποροῦσε, λοιπόν, νά βοηθήσει νά ξεχαστοῦν ἡ στάση, ἡ ψῆφος καί τά καμώματα πολλῶν; Νά κλείσουν τά στόματα τῶν ἀρχιερέων μέ τήν αὔξηση τῶν ἀποδοχῶν τους γιά νά σταματήσουν νά τό θυμίζουν καί νά ἐπηρεάζουν τούς χριστιανούς, τά μέλη τῆς Ἐκκλησίας.
TRANSLATION:
“…However, the main reason appears to be, in light of elections, for the position of the Church (and naturally of the Hierarchs) with regards to the “gay marriage” law to be forgotten. Those who govern fully perceive that this is NOT a closed matter for the Church. It insults its ethos, the teachings of the Gospel, the Mystery of Marriage, and the institution of the Christian family. Thus, it is difficult for the topic to be forgotten.
What would help, therefore, in helping the stance, vote, and actions of many not be “forgotten”? [Certainly] for the mouths of hierarchs to become shut with the increase in their compensation, in order for them to stop reminding and influencing Christians, the members of the Church. ” (Met. Symeon of N. Smyrni)
In short, the Metropolitan of Nea Smyrni is openly suggesting that this salary is a bribe in exchange for continued “hierarchical silence” on a topic that has religious, ethical, and societal implications. Another classic day in modern-day Greek “Theo-Politics” (not Geo-politics)…[with situations like this, people contemplate how interesting it is historically that the United States Treasury was the first to come up with the slogan “In God we Trust” on the dollar bill…it could have easily been inscribed on the Greek Drachma many years ago]
And however shocking it might be to read these statements in the news, unfortunately, these words may actually be believable. The Church of Greece had every opportunity, and PLENTY OF TIME ahead of the legislation to conduct a referendum at all parishes across Greece, following the successful model that Archbishop Christodoulos had used for the issue of the National Identity Cards years earlier, when that was a hot topic. A collection of millions of signatures (more than New Democracy had gathered in the previous elections) could have definitely thrown a wrench into the government’s plans, because among others, there is an old concept of δια βοης λαου” (meaning if many people are clearly “voicing” their vote, it’s valid). This concept can easily apply in the prism of Article 1 of the Greek Constitution which indicates clearly that ..”popular dominance (will of the people) is the foundation of the State, and that all powers are sourced from the People, exist FOR the People, and are enacted as the Constitution provides for” :
2. Θεμέλιο του πολιτεύματος είναι η λαϊκή κυριαρχία.
3. Όλες οι εξουσίες πηγάζουν από το Λαό, υπάρχουν υπέρ αυτού και του Έθνους και ασκούνται όπως ορίζει το Σύνταγμα.
That’s why Archbishop Christodoulos’ move to conduct a Church-sponsored referrendum back in the day was historically significant…it worked. However, the Church was strangely “subdued” and “diplomatic” in its responses during the critical 90 to 100 days or so between the arrival of Kasselakis onto the political scene (with visible intent of assisting Mitsotakis in prioritizing this legislation) and the final vote in parliament….However, the Church didn’t really react the way it could have….
And further “evidence” may be none other than the subdued media coverage (at least on TV) of the recent “gay pride” events in Athens…is this perhaps a sign that it is no longer beneficial for the government to “push” media coverage of this increasingly unpopular topic, ahead of an election year?
And even what the Metropolitan of Nea Smyrni now suggests holds true, where was he back then, when they were preparing the legislation? Why wasn’t he on the streets protesting? Why wasn’t he gathering signatures from his Metropolis and urging other Metropolitans to do the same? While even Metropolitans are always welcome to repent, this is obviously “too little, too late” (especially for someone who has been an Orthodox bishop for 24 years) for the damage that has already been done in Greece. And now we naturally have to question the Metropolitan’s motives in making these statements…It is no secret that Archbishop Ieronymos is very old, and not in good health…Is perhaps the Metropolitan of Nea Smyrni angling his rhetoric to increase his popularity, so that his name be potentially discussed in the streets as a potential “worthy successor” in the near future?
Jun 18, 2026, www.helleniscope.com
DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.
Archbishop Christodoulos was meddler where he didn’t belong. Conspiracy theories abounded then. That the number 666 was the devil, that the absence of religious identification on the cards was going to mean the end of Greece and so many other lies that had no business coming out of the mouth of a cleric. The church should ONLY be concerned with the saving of souls—the ones who want to be saved—, not dividing a nation. We all remember the huge demonstrations, as if Greeks need a cause to demonstrate, break windows, disrupt traffic, and set fires. And what was the result? The identity cards are the law, with no religious affiliation on them. As it should be in a modern, European country
Ieronimos proved mature and a true hierarch, by leaving civil decisions to the civil authorities. The time that Greece needed Ethnarches are long gone. And Greece is better for it.
Archbishop Christodoulos was a hero and a defender of the faith. The
Government of Costas Simitis turned Greece into a client state of the west. It handed over Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan to the Turks, supported the Annan Plan for Cyprus, and allowed the NATO aggressors to use Greek territory to attack Orthodox Serbia, Greece’s closest friend in the Balkans. The Simitis legislation on the Church was aimed to curb its influence as Orthodoxy is perceived as a threat by Greece’s foreign rulers in America and Europe.
Archbishop Christodoulos stood up to Patriarch Bartholomew on the “new lands” issue. He sided with the Russian Church when Patriarch Bartholomew intervened in the Church of Estonia.
Archbishop Christodoulos would never have recognized the fake Church in Ukraine and would have condemned the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox.
In 2004, Archbishop Christodoulos condemned the pogroms against Orthodox Serbs in Kosovo.
He would never have colluded with the war criminal Mike Pompeo to carve up the Russian Church. When Archbishop Christodoulos passed, tens of thousands of Greeks attended the funeral procession. He was a true Sheppard.
This is recurrent mistake from commenters. They mistake the actions of the hierarchs, that meddle into politics as the right thing to do. Nothing could be further from the truth.
That’s what Theodoros is doing.
Christianity, as Christ taught it, has to do with the people’s faith. Christ did not take on the Roman Empire, contrary to what Jews expected of a Messiah. He took on the hypocrites of the faith, such as the scribes and the archpriests. That’s why you don’t hear Christ condemning homosexuality and abortion–two practices that were very prevalent at His time.
A defender of the faith does not stir up the populace with useless signatures. The citizens VOTE for a politician and the majority wins. Signatures don’t mean anything. People that sign because they’re told by a hierarch mistake it as a command from God. Greece is NOT a theocracy.
What Simitis did with Abdulah, if he supported the Annan plan, or backed NATO, as he should have because Greece is part of NATO, is not in a hierarch’s’ purview to judge. Those decisions have NOTHING to do with faith. He has one vote as everyone else, if he disagrees, let him vote. The fact that Serbia is Orthodox doesn’t mean that Greece should go against her NATO partners. Ukraine and Russia are Orthodox. You all take sides against Ukraine.
A churchman had every right to collect donations to send to Serbia. That’s what a hierarch does. He has no right to tell the civilian authorities which side to take.
As for what he “wouldn’t have done” is speculation. I don’t give any credence to speculations.
Bob,
Archbishop Christodoulos spoke up on a variety of issues that had moral implications. The rapid secularization of Greece was a concern of his (rightfully so). The removal of religion from id cards has opened the door to the deChristianization of Greece. Gay marriage has followed as now the rest of the lgbt ideology is being introduced in Greece.
There are often moral issues that have political implications. Take for example Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens. The Archbishop angered the Germans by expressing his support for Greek Jews and calling on Greece’s Christians to protect them.
The Germans viewed this as a political act.
Speaking of politics, Patriarch Bartholomew has colluded with the worst elements of the US government to carve up the Russian Church. Archbishop Christodoulos never did anything remotely political such as this. Patriarch Bartholomew is a darling of Greece’s secular media even as he has contributed to the fierce persecution of Orthodox Ukrainians.
Archbishop Ieronymos granted Mike Pompeo’s request to recognize the artificial creation known as OCU. How is this not political? The Archbishop aligned himself and the Church with the foreign policy interests of the US.
Theodoros. Where you see “global ideology” as a bad thing, is your opinion. You’re entitled to it. Where you are wrong though is that the removal of religious identity is the precursor of the deChristianization of Greece, you are wrong. When a people need to be told that they are Christians by the government, then they are not real Christians. Faith is not a written line on an ID card. It is much deeper and personal than that. Christ didn’t tell us to label ourselves Christian and then continue as we were. Its a whole way of life, that you have to want to follow it. “Pick up your cross and follow me”, means a whole lot more than a line on an I.D. card.
You are wrong on comparing Damaskinos to Christodoulos. Damaskinos was up against a violent conqueror. Christodoulos was opposing a legitimate, democratically elected CIVILIAN government. Damaskinnos was a hero, because he went against the anti-Jewish feelings of Greeks, against a powerful enemy, the Germans, that could have executed him on the spot, and against the silence of other, much bigger churches, such as the Catholic.
Do you know where Christodoulos would have been a hero? If the Greek State forced the church to bless homosexual marriages. This is what all you Super-Christians don’t comprehend.
The church can follow its own rules. The state does not tell the church what to do and the church should not tell the state what to do.
You go off on what Bartholomew and Ieronymos did. Again, that’s your opinion. My opinion is that every Orthodox country has their own church. Ukraine deserves to have her own church also. Who are we to deny them what others have?
Bob,
Unfortunately, your opinion was anathematized in the 19th century by Constantinople years before Bartholomew took over…they called your opinion “ethnophyletism” back then, and it was decreed to be an abomination…
You are still entitled to an opinion, of course, but just pointing it out as a tangent of this conversation…
Bob,
One day perhaps, when you do some basic research, and realize who Ieronymos really is, how he has systematically “filtered” and “altered” the Synod of the Church of Greece during his tenure, and if you ever walk the streets of his former Metropolis and hear what the local villagers claim about his past (even as Metropolitan of Thebes and Livadia) , and fully understand who he was even prior to becoming Archbishop…perhaps you will conduct another protest similar to the one you attended on 79th street.
Christodoulos, no matter what you think of him, would not taken the same position as Ieronymos on this, and multiple other matters. While he had several flaws (undoubtedly), Christodoulos was most annoying to the government, not to the people…that says a lot. He was a real leader, albeit “annoyoing to the establishment”, and not a puppet. That “slap in the face” attitude against the Government and European Globalists is why some conspiracy theorists on the street suggest even to the day that Christodoulos suffered a similar “rapid end” to that of Yaser Arafat (media reports back then about someone putting something radioactive in his drink, if you recall those news reports back in the day, resulting in a rapid cancer)…those techniques were popular during those years, even used by the Russians to “remove annoying people from the equation” in London too, with Polonium, if you recall that as well…
Ieronymos was a “perfect choice” from the Greek Government’s perspective, because he was a “silent and passive lamb”, with multiple “moments of compromise” along the way.
Markos.
This is where again you fall into the same trap of going off on minutae that has nothing to do with the theme of you essay. I will not look into Ieronimo’s past life, because I dont care to and because it has nothing to do with his not opposing the governmennt’s decision to legalize same sex marriage.
As I said to Theodoros, what you, super-Christians dont understand is that the State has the right and obligation to set its own laws. The state LEADS. Same sex marriage could be overturned, if a majority of voters dont want it. Look at the overturning of abortion here in America. Let the people decide. The church can make its position known, of course.
If the state forced the church to perform same sex marriage, that’s where all super-Christians can start protesting.
I applaud Ieronimos’ being a “passive lamb” as you call him, where he has no business being anything other than a lamb.
In a flock, the shepherd cannot and SHOULD not assume the role of a “silent lamb”…He has a very different role to perform…. To keep the lambs from being led astray… and YES, whether you like it or not, that includes the obligation of protecting the flock from “being led astray by secular, immoral government officials who theoretically represent the people, who happen to also comprise the Body of the Church in Greece”… SO NO, BUDDY…YOU CAN’T SEPARATE THE TWO… Christodoulos “broke the puppet mold” and “wrote the modern book” on what a good Archbishop should be doing for his flock with respect to standing up to the government when needed.
And reality is, a healthy flock needs not only a good shepherd, but some aggressive barking dogs on the perimeter that keep the prowling wolves at bay…
You may not like the “loud barking” around you, but it’s necessary in our corrupt day and age….
Markos. There you go again with the super-Christian talk. Ethophylitism has been the norm of all the Orthodox churches, since Moscow broke away after Konstantinople fell to the Ottomans. Then Greece followed, and then all the other national churches. In the 19th century, the Phanar anathematized the break aways, due to concerns of rendering the church into a small, insignificant institution. Which came to be anyway.
Using the anathema as a glitsa (shepherd’s cane), to keep the “flock” in its place was a much used tool in the 19th and early 20th century Kazantzakis and Venizelos were anathematized. The royals that wanted to translate the Gospels into modern Greek, so Greeks can learn what the Bible taught, were anathematized.
The above paragraph also is a reply on your second reply. If you want to be a sheep, hit over the head with a glitsa, go right ahead. Then, you should denounce the declaration that you composed and go baa-baa. I have no need for anyone, most of all, so called “shepherds”, to guard me from going “astray”.
You want to be a sheep, go right ahead. Its your right. I want no part of that. That’s why I’ve been protesting and fighting our “shepherds” here in America. Because I’m not a sheep.
The demonstrations that Archbishop Christodoulos called were entirely pieceful. Mr. Karp you are confusing these demonstrations with the anarchists who riot and burn property.
Theodoros, well stated!
Bob,
The id issue was first shot fired by the Greek government against the Church.
Archbishop Christodoulos made frequent speeches and gave sermons on a variety of topics. For example, he condemned racism and anti Semitism. But he also took issue with the government’s handling of Cyprus. The Cyprus with Orthodox Greeks whose Churches the Turks have converted into Mosques.
The Archbishop criticized the European Union for making no mention of Christianity in its constitution. He saw where things were headed. In our day, we are seeing the persecution of Christians in the west. That is coming to Greece.
Publicly funded museums are subsidizing blasphemous paintings. An LGBT film festival had a blasphemous poster of Panagia which triggered protests. The ID issue was the trigger for the battle of the future of Greece.
An example twenty years ago over the teaching of history in Greek school textbooks. The slaughter of the Greeks at Smyrna was downplayed and the text suggested the Greeks “left” Smyrna. The book diminished the horrors of the Janissaries during the Turkocratia.
The Archbishop rightfully led the opposition to this distortion of Greek Orthodox history. We have seen how far the Church of Greece has fallen since.
American officials order the Archbishop to recognize the schismatic entity in Ukraine. I keep bringing this up but this matter alone indicates that the Church of Greece lost its freedom under the current Archbishop.
In America gay marriage has led to the rise of the trans cult and its predatory designs on children. This is coming to Greece. It is coming because Greek officials believe all things western and modern are good.
Orthodoxy in Greece is viewed by the political elite as backwards. This was seen in the hostility to Archbishop Christodoulos. And the comparison of Archbishop Damaskinos to Archbishop Christodoulos is a just one.
Archbishop Christodoulos also defended the Church of Greece from the encroachments of Patriarch Bartholomew. Fifteen years before invading Ukraine, the Phanar provoked a rift with the Church of Greece.
Theodoros. I dont see the connection between the issue of religious affiliation printed on an ID card and the church, to a point of it being the “first shot”. The ID card is issued for the recognition of the person that carries it. Such as “brown hair”, Black Eyes”, 6 ft tall etc. By posting his religious affiliation is not a characteristic. Passports don’t list your faith. Does that make you less Orthodox?
The religious affiliation on an ID card, is a carry-over from when Greece, being a former province of the Ottoman empire, where there was no national affiliation, only religious, no matter what language you spoke. No one asked if you were a Turk or a Greek or a Jew. . And EVERYONE belonged to a faith. You didnt have a choice. If you were Orthodox Christian, you spoke Greek. If you were Moslem, you spoke Turkish. If you were a Jew, you spoke Hebrew or Ladino. But you were still an Ottoman.
Christodoulos had every right to speak about any subject he wanted. What he did wrong was to fanaticize people and consider the religious affiliation on the ID card as war against the church. Just as you are right now.
Yes, there are museums as you say that are blasphemus. Just as there are clergy that are committing terrible sins. All these are not because of the ID cards. Clergy was always taking advantage of people, as Christ taught against them and committed terrible sins. When the people that represent the church commit abuse and sin, it is much worse, in the eyes of God and in scandalizing the faithful, than when a museum exhibits such trash. Because the church is hypocritical. At least, that trashy art never told us how to behave to go to heaven.
As for predatory designs on children, because of recognition of gay marriage, that’s a figment of your imagination. More abuse of children was happening before, but never exposed, than in the present, where at least the law is very strict and punishes with long prison sentences any child abuser.