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Greek crisis may change taboo on church wealth
As ordinary Greeks suffer from a massive austerity drive, the wealth of the Church is coming into the spotlight as some question its favored status. Still, nobody wants to talk about the issue, a Greek journalist says.
The riches of the Church of Greece could help Greeks shoulder the country’s mountain of debt, but any suggestion about redistributing the wealth has its controversies. With the Greek streets heating up, however, even the men of the cloth have started to question whether their favored status can last forever.
Speaking during an Oct. 9 visit to Mount Athos, a collection of 20 fortified monasteries in northeastern Greece, Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christianity, said the church should “cooperate with the government,” according to news agencies. Although Bartholomew’s words seemed to imply a change of status for the church, Dositheos Anağnastopulos, the press representative of the Fener Greek Patriarchate in Istanbul, refuted Bartholomew I’s words and told the Hürriyet Daily News that the patriarch simply “asked for help from God to aid Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and other government officials around the world who have been suffering due to the crisis.”
The Church of Greece has mostly been exempt from the austerity measures that ordinary citizens have been experiencing. A new tax on extra property was levied on citizens Sept. 11, but Athens was quick to announce that the church and its monasteries would not have to pay the tax.
The sacrosanct status of the church’s finances is engraved in the Greek Constitution. On top of that, the current finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, is known for being “very close” to the Orthodox community. “Nobody would want to talk about this, because just by talking one confronts the church itself,” said Mihalis Vasiliadis, the editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Greek-language daily Apoyevmatini. “The autonomous status of the church is [guaranteed] with the third and 105th articles of the Constitution.”
Speaking to the Daily News, Vasiliadis described the “unity” of the Greek state and the church. “I wish it were like in Turkey, with the government and the church separated. Something has to be done about this urgently.”
“The church does not wish to pay a share of its income,” the metropolitan of Bursa, Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, told the Daily News. “But on the other hand, priests cannot even be sent to villages due to this crisis.”
Wealth hard to estimate
According to an estimate by daily Katimerini, the church’s assets amounted to 700 million euros in 2008, but Stefanos Manos, a politician who has held a number of Cabinet posts, estimated them at over 1 billion euros. However, these figures only take into account the portion of ecclesiastical assets that were directly managed by the central services of the church. Thus, property owned by parishes and the 80 Greek bishops, as well as the assets of 450 monasteries, was not included in the estimates.
The “crown jewel” in the church’s assets is a 7.6 percent stake in the National Bank of Greece (NBG), which also owns Finansbank in Turkey.
General government gross debt in Greece reached 143 percent of gross domestic product last year. The current debt load, estimated at around 325 billion euros, is nearly double the level most economists see as sustainable. “Beginning in the 19th century, the Church of Greece established its status as a founding partner of banks,” Vasiliadis told the Daily News. “Its shares grew in value each passing year. Today, the budget of every monastery and church depends on metropolitan bishops – even the Archbishop Ieronimos cannot intervene in this,” he said.
The Istanbul-based journalist said the archbishop, however, would “wish to support the government” in these hard times. “Of course, hard-line metropolitan bishops will oppose him,” Vasiliadis added.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.p...lth-2011-10-13
As ordinary Greeks suffer from a massive austerity drive, the wealth of the Church is coming into the spotlight as some question its favored status. Still, nobody wants to talk about the issue, a Greek journalist says.
The riches of the Church of Greece could help Greeks shoulder the country’s mountain of debt, but any suggestion about redistributing the wealth has its controversies. With the Greek streets heating up, however, even the men of the cloth have started to question whether their favored status can last forever.
Speaking during an Oct. 9 visit to Mount Athos, a collection of 20 fortified monasteries in northeastern Greece, Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christianity, said the church should “cooperate with the government,” according to news agencies. Although Bartholomew’s words seemed to imply a change of status for the church, Dositheos Anağnastopulos, the press representative of the Fener Greek Patriarchate in Istanbul, refuted Bartholomew I’s words and told the Hürriyet Daily News that the patriarch simply “asked for help from God to aid Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and other government officials around the world who have been suffering due to the crisis.”
The Church of Greece has mostly been exempt from the austerity measures that ordinary citizens have been experiencing. A new tax on extra property was levied on citizens Sept. 11, but Athens was quick to announce that the church and its monasteries would not have to pay the tax.
The sacrosanct status of the church’s finances is engraved in the Greek Constitution. On top of that, the current finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, is known for being “very close” to the Orthodox community. “Nobody would want to talk about this, because just by talking one confronts the church itself,” said Mihalis Vasiliadis, the editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based Greek-language daily Apoyevmatini. “The autonomous status of the church is [guaranteed] with the third and 105th articles of the Constitution.”
Speaking to the Daily News, Vasiliadis described the “unity” of the Greek state and the church. “I wish it were like in Turkey, with the government and the church separated. Something has to be done about this urgently.”
“The church does not wish to pay a share of its income,” the metropolitan of Bursa, Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, told the Daily News. “But on the other hand, priests cannot even be sent to villages due to this crisis.”
Wealth hard to estimate
According to an estimate by daily Katimerini, the church’s assets amounted to 700 million euros in 2008, but Stefanos Manos, a politician who has held a number of Cabinet posts, estimated them at over 1 billion euros. However, these figures only take into account the portion of ecclesiastical assets that were directly managed by the central services of the church. Thus, property owned by parishes and the 80 Greek bishops, as well as the assets of 450 monasteries, was not included in the estimates.
The “crown jewel” in the church’s assets is a 7.6 percent stake in the National Bank of Greece (NBG), which also owns Finansbank in Turkey.
General government gross debt in Greece reached 143 percent of gross domestic product last year. The current debt load, estimated at around 325 billion euros, is nearly double the level most economists see as sustainable. “Beginning in the 19th century, the Church of Greece established its status as a founding partner of banks,” Vasiliadis told the Daily News. “Its shares grew in value each passing year. Today, the budget of every monastery and church depends on metropolitan bishops – even the Archbishop Ieronimos cannot intervene in this,” he said.
The Istanbul-based journalist said the archbishop, however, would “wish to support the government” in these hard times. “Of course, hard-line metropolitan bishops will oppose him,” Vasiliadis added.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.p...lth-2011-10-13
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