The Church of Greece decided to celebrate the Sunday of Orthodoxy on March 24 at the Holy Monastery of Asomaton Petraki, instead of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, as has always been customary.
It is crystal clear that this is a reaction of the Church to the decision of the Greek Parliament to pass the bill on same-sex marriage.
Thus, we have a Church that disregards the will of the people, as expressed through the temple of Democracy, which is the national Parliament.
It acts punitively and in a “political” manner, sending a message to the State that the Church does not wish for the presence of political figures who supported the law for equality in civil marriage for same-sex couples and also to avoid welcoming the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, to the cathedral as was traditionally done in all previous years.
These are dangerous games. From a Church that, instead of teaching love, isolates and punishes people. The majority of whom, no matter what lifestyle they have chosen, deeply believe in Christ and the Love that the Son of God taught us.
School violence has taken on large dimensions in Greece. There’s hardly a day that goes by without hearing that students have “fought” among themselves, exerted violence against other children, even teachers, or caused material damage to school facilities. The Ministry of Education decided to take strict measures, which will be implemented immediately.
Some of these measures, as a bulwark against the increase in bullying incidents, include the reintroduction of a 5-day suspension and making it easier for a permanent expulsion from school. Additionally, in cases of destruction in schools, the costs will be borne by the parents.
However, as much as we are preoccupied with our issues (which products became cheaper on the supermarket shelves yesterday, the SYRIZA-PASOK battle for the second place, Kasselakis’ loan to SYRIZA, Tsipras’ self-criticism, problems with the bad weather, the Church’s upset and vindictive tricks over same-sex marriages, even the regression of some parties regarding the advent of private and non-profit universities in Greece, …, as Pink Floyd say in “Mother” from “The Wall”, to a large extent, it’s just a waste of time. “Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb?”. Wars are raging, and us?
A delegation from the World Health Organisation visited Gaza these days. They went everywhere, saw, heard, …, and reported that in just one day, 15 children died of malnutrition at the hospital in Gaza.
And in “The Guardian”, the top news yesterday was that a United Nations report shows that Israeli hostages, still in the hands of Hamas, have been tortured and raped by those who still hold them in Gaza…
A war of horrors, from all sides…
Today’s Facebook post, by journalist and political editor Noni Karagianni: “Many fingers were raised and indecencies uttered about Giorgos Dalaras in the past period. His Sunday appearance on the always excellent “Music Box” (by Nikos Portokaloglou and Rena Morfi on ERT television) has educational content, for those who do not know or others who forget, who Dalaras is and what exactly he has contributed for decades to Greek music”.
On this occasion, the decision of the Greek Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, for only Greek songs to be played in hotels has caused many fair reactions. Some agree with the measure, but most disagree mainly with the “mandatory” nature of the decision.
The undersigned stands with the latter.
And I really feel no need to explain why…
