Athens is in danger of losing the ball with ecclesiastical issues. We are not only talking about the dramatic situation that had been created in America, where there was a great gap between the Greek community and Archbishop Elpidophoros, with whom the government did not get along at all.

This is the umpteenth time that the Prime Minister has been to New York and the program did not include a visit to the Archdiocese. Ultimately, however, it was imposed (apparently by some wealthy Greeks who claim to be friends of Trump) that the Prime Minister's meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew take place at the Archdiocese, where he was welcomed, with cameras spread out all around, by Mr. Elpidophoros, who thus got the photo he wanted. We do not know if the front was closed, but in any case, if a solution is not found soon, Hellenism and the Diaspora, which is valuable to this country, will pay the damage.

Misguided visit

Things are much worse with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. There are many voices warning about the games being played there with the finger of the Russian Patriarchate, which is plotting against the Ecumenical Patriarchate, with which it has been at loggerheads since it recognized the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. However, the last straw was when Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem chose to visit Constantinople, while knowing that the Ecumenical Patriarch was absent in the United States, and to meet with Tayyip Erdogan.

His statements that he was seeking a reaffirmation of the security guarantee that the Ottoman Empire had offered angered not only the Orthodox but also the Israelis, who saw a hierarch who exercises his pastoral duties in Jerusalem rushing to seek guarantees and protection from Tayyip Erdogan. In the same days, the Turkish leader threatened that he “will not hand over even a single stone of Jerusalem…”

Because these are extremely serious issues, affecting the country's international relations as well as serious international problems, it is very dangerous to allow priests to practice diplomacy.

Ministry of Outrage THE PRESENT