Christodoulos
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His Beatitude the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos (Greek: Χριστόδουλος) (born Christos Paraskevaides Χρήστος Παρασκευαΐδης on 1939 in Xanthi) is the prelate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece, a position to which he was elected in 1998. Since his elevation, he has attracted a significant amount of controversy, culminating in a major corruption scandal in 2005.
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[edit] Election
Christodoulos, at 59 years of age, has been the youngest archbishop to head the Greek Church. He was the first cleric to be democratically elected to the post by the Holy Synod [1]. His chief rivals in ballot were Bishop of Alexandroupolis Anthimos and Bishop of Thebes Ieronymos. He announced his intention to be a reformer and promised to modernise the Church as well as improving relations with other Orthodox groupings. He criticised the growth of racism and discrimination against religious minorities in Greece, but was in turn criticised for his strongly nationalist stance on Greek Catholics, Jews, Muslims and other religious minorities [1].
[edit] Involvement in issues
The archbishop played a leading role in stoking public opposition to NATO and the Kosovo War of 1999 in which Greece, as a NATO member, played a significant, though largely non-interventionist, role. He also spoke out strongly against the European Union and the intention of the Greek government under Costas Simitis to follow EU directives even where they clashed with what he regarded as traditional Greek policies. [2] Shortly after his swearing in, Christodoulos stated that it was "a disgrace for the modern Greeks to decide on the basis of what directives from Brussels might ask, at one time or another [3].
In 2000 a major clash between church and state errupted when the Greek government sought to follow a decision of the Greek Data Protection Authority, by removing the "Religion" field from the national ID cards carried by Greek citizens. Christodoulos opposed the decision, claiming that it was part of a wider plan to marginalise the Church from Greek public life ; he also stated that the decision was "put forward by neo-intellectuals who want to attack us like rabid dogs and tear at our flesh". [4] The archbishop organised two demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki, alongside a majority of bishops of the Church of Greece, supporting the inclusion of religious data on a voluntary basis, and asked for a referendum on the matter. In 2001, Christodoulos prompted international criticism after claiming that the ID decision had been instigated by Jews. [5]
It emerged the same year that despite Christodoulos' claims that he had no knowledge of nor involvement with human rights violations by the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, he had been recorded on film and photographed swearing in the new regime [2] while acting in the role of Secretary of the Iera Sinodos (Ιερά Σύνοδος), the Council of the Greek Orthodox Church. [6]
Despite earlier criticism of the Roman Catholic Church, Christodoulos consented in 2001 to the Greek government's decision to allow Pope John Paul II to visit Greece. He commented that he would not "close the door" on the Pope, because he was coming to the country as a pilgrim. The two men met for discussions during the Papal visit in May 2001, though they did not pray together. Christodoulos' decision led to major controversy in Greece, where many Orthodox Christians regard the Pope (and the Catholic Church as a whole) as a schismatic heretic. [7] He also consented in 2002 to the construction of a mosque in Athens, to end the anomalous situation of the Greek capital being the only EU capital without a Muslim place of worship. [8]
In 2006, Greek newspapers reported the archbishop's displeasure at a decision by the centre-right government of New Democracy under Kostas Karamanlis to discontinue the practice of allowing Greek Orthodox priests to use public schools for confessionary purposes. Until then, calling in priests to hold private confession sessions within schools, was at the discretion of local educational authorities ; the sessions took place on a voluntary basis for children. Greek media reported that the Archbishop characterised the move a "hostile act" against the Church [9], while the Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church, presided by Christodoulos, sent a letter of complaint to the Ministry for National Education and Religious Affairs under Marietta Giannakou. The decision, however, was applauded by representatives of the Greek Teachers' Association [10], who supported it as a measure that safeguarded freedom of belief and fostered respect for cultural and religious differences in schools.
[edit] Criticism and controversy
Christodoulos has supported views on Greek politics and culture, that have been criticized as highly conservative and nationalist. He led protests in 2002 against Greece's version of the television programme Big Brother, urging followers to "pray for the young kids" on the shows and to "turn off our [television] sets". [11]
In 2006, he decried the establishment of the monotonic orthography, as a "globalization plot" to impose "cultural uniformity" and "support the sale of multi-national Olivetti's typewriters". He has also sarcastically referred to the lawmakers' "kindness of relieving our race from the darkness of Aristophanes" [12], with regards to the same matter. The latter statement probably refers to Aristophanes of Byzantium, credited for the invention of the accent system during the Hellenistic era, and not the classical Greek playwright who, like all of his contemporaries, never wrote in the polytonic system which was a later invention.
The archbishop has also been intensely critical of globalization, to which he has referred, on repeated occasions, in disparaging terms as a global, or alternatively, "foreigner" plot to deprive people of their national identities. In 2004 he criticized globalization as a "bulldozer that is out to demolish everything, on account of those who want to rule the world without resistance or obstacles"[13], adding that Greeks live in a paradise compared to other Europeans, because "they have a strong faith, they build churches, follow traditions, and resist globalisation". In 2006 he castigated gloabalisation as a "crime against humanity" and "a vehicle to Americanize the life of all humankind"[14]. He has also claimed that "globalization wants to turn us into gruel, soup, sheep, or better yet, turkeys, so that we may be led with a cane"[15]. In 2002, he asked students in a Greek school whether they wanted to be "mince meat or meat", explaining that "foreigners want to turn us into the meat-grinder, while meat is a solid thing".[16]
Christodoulos has frequently criticized the principles and values of what he characterizes "the atheist Enlightenment", and which he contrasts to Christian values [17].
The archbishop has also been criticised for frequently judging the internal and foreign policies of the elected Greek governments, usually during sermon in liturgy. In 1999 he complained during sermon that the Education Ministries were "experimenting on students" with their continuous innovations on the educational system, causing the dissatisfaction of then Minister Gerasimos Arsenis, who was pushing substantial changes in secondary education at the time.
Christodoulos created a major controversy in 2003 when he denounced proposals to let Turkey enter the European Union, calling the Turks "barbarians". [18] Despite the fact a number of Greeks are also opposed to Turkey's entrance (as, indeed, are many other Europeans), Christodoulos' statements were seen as an unwarranted intervention in foreign affairs, based on a discriminatory and racialist logic. It has to be noted, however, that statements to the same effect had been made -and retracted- in the past by former Foreign Affairs Minister Theodoros Pangalos. acial The archbishop has been accused of fusing ethnic stereotypes and homophobic ideas when, on another occasion, he proclaimed that "Because we are not German, neither French, far more not English, but manful Greeks, we are Orthodox Christians". [19] The statement reflects a tendency in Greek popular culture to depict the British, French and German men with a tendency towards effeminacy, more frequently seen in bourlesque comedy rather than serious works.
Christodoulos has also been criticized for supporting what many Greeks feel to be an arbitrary, nationalist, and ultimately ahistorical division between the Greek and European culture at large. In 1998 he declared that "when our ancestors gave the lights of civilization, they [Europeans] were living up in trees"[20]. In 2003 he claimed that "history teaches us Europeans were always out to harm us. Long before the sack of Constantinople, Hellenism had been subjected to the horrible experience of the Franks, who wanted to achieve, by any means possible, its extinction". The latter sentence, most probably in reference to the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, seems to indicate that the Archbishop extrapolates attitudes of the excommunicated Frankish sackers of 1204 AD, to all Western Europeans, of all times.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks attacks on the World Trade Center, parts of the public were shocked to hear the archbishop attribute the attacks to "despondent men" who acted "out of despair caused by the injustices of the Great Powers". Critics attacked the archbishop [3] for what they considered to constitute an underhanded justification of the terrorist act. Christodoulos denied the allegation and responded that he condemned the attacks. In the fifth anniversary of the attacks, in 2006, and while speaking to an audience of High School students, Christodoulos characterized the September 11, 2001 attacks "a hideous crime that cost the lives of thousands of innocent people" and attributed them to "man failing to discern between good and evil, and being unable to posit himself responsibly towards the problems of the world" [21].
The archbishop's attacks on human rights have been equally controversial. During a 2006 speech [22], Christodoulos stated that the Church is bound to "come into many conflicts with the movement for human rights", despite the fact "it not only does not oppose human rights, but supersedes them". His proposed reason for these conflicts is that "the Church cannot accept what the Lord of This World is promoting through the human rights movement : the abolishment of sin". The archbishop has attributed human rights to a ploy by Satan on a second occasion, stating that "the forces of Darkness cannot stand it [that Greece is a predominantly Orthodox country], and for this reason they want to decapitate it and flatten everything, by means of globalization, the novel deity that has appeared alongside another deity called human rights, and on account of which they expect us to curtail our own rights". [23]
[edit] Clash with Ecumenical Patriarchate
Christodoulos has also encountered serious difficulties within the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 2003, he fell out with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the head of the Church, over who should have the final say in the appointment of bishops in northern Greece. As a result Christodoulos' name was striken off the Diptych of the Church as a punishment. He was reinstated three months later, as the conflict seemed to be coming to a resolution. [24]
[edit] Implication in 2005 Church scandals
The archbishop's problems within the church came to a head in early 2005, when a series of scandals emerged that severely damaged the church's image. Christodoulos himself was drawn into the scandal when he was forced to admit links with priest Iakovos Giosakis, imprisoned on charges of stealing icons and manipulating court judgments through an illegal circuit which arranged the bribery of judges. Christodoulos initially denied knowing the man, until a high-ranking judicial member, unrelated to the scandal, revealed that he had met the Archbishop twice in the presence of Giosakis, in meetings which were arranged by the latter [25].
Christodoulos was also criticised for his connections with Apostolos Vavylis, a convicted drugs smuggler whom he had earlier also denied ever meeting. Vavylis was said to have lobbied on Christodoulos' behalf for the election of Jerusalem Patriarch Irenaios, a Christodoulos supporter. Vavylis' tactics included distributing homoerotic pictures of the patriarch's leading opponent in an apparent smear campaign. [26] Despite calls for his resignation, Christodoulos vowed to stay on and "clean up" the church. [27] In the height of the controversies, he decried "scandal-makers" who were out to make sure that "those who bear the flag", like himself, were "eclipsed" so that [28] "globalization came to pass".
[edit] Quotes
- Archbishop Christodoulos has been taped on record saying that he did not know anything about the human rights abuses that were taking place during the Greek military junta of 1967-1974, because those seven years he was busy studying to become a priest. The Archbishop was taped on film and photographed at the time, swearing in the new Regime [2], as, at the time, he was Secretary of the Iera Sinodos (Ιερά Σύνοδος), the Council of the Greek Orthodox Church.
- The Archbishop has also been on tape saying, referring to the Justinian era of Christianism: Early Greek Christians blessed and honored the Ancient Greek temples, in which pagans and heathens dwelled, by recycling the materials (stones and dirt) from the Ancient Greek Temples to build Christian temples. [4] [5]
[edit] Notes & references
- ^ "New Greek Orthodox archbishop enthroned", BBC News, May 9th 1998. Retrieved 6 July 2006.
- ^ a b (Greek) Photo of a younger Christodoulos after swearing in the Regime of the Colonels.
- ^ Manolis Vasilakis, "Kala na pathoun", ISBN 960-252-007-8 A research on the reactions of Greek media and the public after the 9/11 attacks.
- ^ (Greek) The Church of Greece and the ancient Greek pantheon, article from Ios Press.
- ^ (Greek) TV video capture in which the Archbishop analyses his beliefs about the Ancient Greeks and the ancient Greek religion.
[edit] External links
- The Church of Greece: The Archbishop
- (Greek) (English) (French) The Archbishop at the World Council of Churches
- The Archbishop visiting Samos Island
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paraskevaides, Christodoulos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Christodoulos |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Archbishop of Athens and All Greece |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Xanthi, Greece |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
