by Tom Ellis

Link: http://www.ekathimerini.com/250799/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/mitsotakis-dared-to-face-down-the-church

What no other prime minister dared to do, from the late Andreas Papandreou and his minister of education Antonis Tritsis in the 1980s, to Alexis Tsipras in the previous four and a half years – despite their stated intentions – was done by Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He clashed with the Church of Greece over the new coronavirus, and did not back down.

He did so in an environment that reinforced his position and in which he had common sense on his side. The form of the threat posed by the spread of Covid-19 and the constant and persuasive briefings by health experts had created such conditions that the overwhelming majority of the faithful understood that the prime minister was right.

Guided by the need to protect the common interest, Mitsotakis made clear decisions differentiating himself from perhaps the most powerful institution in the country.

Politically, it was not easy. Within his own party lies the vast majority of the country’s very conservative citizens. He may not be one of them, and he does not follow their approach, but this is not the case with most of his deputies who maintain a relationship of interdependence with the Church, often with its more conservative members. And of course these conservative citizens are also voters.

Looking ahead, it appears that the prime minister’s decision will be vindicated in society’s conscience. Even the bishops seem to be coming around, judging by the fact that the members of the Standing Holy Synod adopted the experts’ recommendations at their own meeting, avoiding physical contact and keeping a distance between each other.

In any case, what happened is that the administration’s secular approach, armed with scientific knowledge and medical results, prevailed over a dogmatism that did not serve the faith of the people, but simply endangered their lives.

Obviously, it is wrong and it does not help to see this dispute in football terms, with winners and losers.

It would be enough for the Greek Church to learn from this painful experience that when public health is at stake, then the harmonious coexistence of religious worship with science is to the benefit of all, including the Church itself.

Even Iran’s religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quickly realized the reality in his country and encouraged citizens to act on instructions from doctors and experts and not the mullahs, even canceling Friday prayers at the mosques.

Pope Francis prayed to the Lord yesterday to “stop the epidemic,” but the Vatican had already decided and announced that the General Audience on Wednesdays and Sunday’s regular blessing would take place online.

Meanwhile, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America – the largest in numbers and most politically and economically powerful province of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – through Archbishop Elpidophoros proceeded, without any reservations, to the necessary actions and exhortations toward the faithful, asking them to refrain from church services and recognizing the obvious danger of the new coronavirus being transmitted by the Holy Communion.

The prudent approach of Archbishop Elpidophoros was emulated by the heads of other Greek Orthodox churches around the world.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul announced yesterday its “ecclesiastical decision and order to suspend all religious ceremonies, events and services until the end of March, except for the personal prayer of Christians in churches.” 

This is the position that the Church of Greece failed to adopt a few days ago, when it announced that it allowed for “simple services” to be held. This attitude by the top clerics – not all agreed – in the face of a dangerous epidemic is worrisome.

Despite the Church’s known power and influence, the state did its duty. The prime minister imposed the suspension of all services in churches and all places of worship, giving priority to public health. And in doing so he dared to do the right thing.

TAGS: Coronavirus, Politics, Religion

The opposition says that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took too long, that he should have taken what was a self-evident decision sooner. Yet, how “self-evident” was it just a couple of week ago for a Greek government to order the suspension of church operations?

The prime minister started trying to convey his concerns to the leadership of the Church of Greece as soon as the epidemic appeared in the country and made numerous efforts to exert his influence as discreetly as possible. He even made his position public during an address to the nation last week, and that was only after his injunctions had been turned down by the Archdiocese of Athens, which said that it would not sway the country’s “conservative bishops” of the need to suspend services. In the meantime, before Mitsotakis spoke publicly about the issue, the measure had already been adopted by the Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, with the Albanian archdiocese following suit immediately after.

The ban was “self-evident,” according to critics. What was self-evident, though, was the need to avoid a confrontation with the Church of Greece in the middle of the biggest public health crisis in a century. The media, it is true, did not help matters along. They tended to frame the issue in religious terms, giving representatives of the hierarchy a platform on which they presented themselves as epidemiology experts. A handful of prominent government officials also proved unhelpful as they came out in defense of the Church’s right to make its own decisions, just as the prime minister’s office was trying to negotiate with the clergy’s leadership. Their stance seemed to overlook the fact that the Church of Greece is a state entity.

Nevertheless, growing public awareness and the discreet pressure exercised by the Maximos Mansion on the Church made Monday’s decision to suspend church services appear inevitable. The issue had matured because the government’s overall handling of it made it appear self-evident. This was amply illustrated by the fact that the government’s foremost expert adviser on the epidemic, professor Sotiris Tsiodras, spoke to the Holy Synod in an unprecedented show of cooperation between faith and science.

Moreover, the Holy Synod’s ensuing statement about allowing only “simple services” to take place was vague and open to accidental or deliberate misinterpretation, leaving the prime minister no choice but to take the final decisive step the hierarchy was hesitant to take.

Every step of Mitsotakis’ handling of the issue showed that he did not want a confrontation with the Church. He did everything to avoid it but when arguments would no longer suffice, he didn’t shy away from it either. And his lack of fear – fear for the political cost of a clash with the highly influential clergy – is not at all self-evident. The prime minister’s predecessor cannot boast of any occasion when he defied this fear. Mitsotakis, however, will at least be able to say that when push came to shove, he didn’t consider the political cost.

Source: http://www.ekathimerini.com/250729/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/nothing-self-evident-about-decision-on-churches