Athens, Greece
Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece on Thursday addressed a letter to Prime Minister Lucas Papademos voicing his strong concern about the situation the country, referring to the “despair”, as he said, being experienced by the people who lose their jobs and homes.
“The phenomenon of the homeless and the famished, a reminder of WWII conditions, has taken the dimensions of a nightmare,” he underlined, adding that “the homeless increase by the thousands everyday, while small and medium-sized enterprises are forced to go out of business. Young people, the country’s best minds, choose to emigrate, while our fathers are unable to live after the dramatic cuts in pensions. Family men, particularly, the poorest, those with many children, wage earners, are in despair due to repeated wage cuts and unbearable new taxes. The unprecedented tolerance of the Greek people is being exhausted, rage pushes fear aside and the risk of social upheaval cannot be ignored anymore by those who are in the position to give orders and those who execute their lethal recipes.”
The current head of the influential Greek Church, who rarely makes statements on non-spiritual and non-ecclesiastical issues, underlined that the situation will deteriorate further and stressed that “in these difficult and undoubtedly, crucial times, we should realise that every Greek home is plagued by insecurity, despair and depression, which unfortunately, have caused, and sadly enough, continues to cause the suicides of those unable to bear the ordeal of their families and the pain of their children.”
He warned that “it is obvious that the drama our country is experiencing will not end here but it could take up new uncontrollable dimensions.”
The Archbishop used uncharacteristically tough language to refer to new austerity measures, which are expected to be implemented, saying the country’s national resources will be surrendered, stressing that the Greek people call for honest answers.
“Even tougher, more painful and unfair measures are being demanded within the same ineffective and unsuccessful policy that is being followed. We are forced to have even larger dosages of a medicine that has proven to be deadly. We are being demanded to undertake commitments that do not solve the problem and only temporarily postpone the foretold death of our economy while, at the same time, we surrender our national sovereignty. They use as collateral our country’s wealth and the wealth that we can recover from our land and our seas,” the Archbishop stressed, adding that “the voices of the desperate, the voices of the Greek people, are being provocatively ignored in decision-making.”
The Archbishop underlined that Greece “will be able to make it if it will resist the blackmail that comes from abroad and rejects these deadly recipes … the Greece of culture, history and traditions cannot be lost because a few believed that this is possible.”
5 Comments
steve Stamos
February 4, 2012 at 8:52 pmA Australian-Greek says: To whom it may concern
We do not need to cultivate extremism or subordinance in this beautiful country and people of ours. What we need is to refuse, under any circumstances, set aside the truth and relinquish our principles for which we are known best from ancient times.
To go against the tide of a culture, a collective, and criticize its evils (EU) is so counter to what some have been conditioned to expect from us that any sign of dissent triggers in them feelings of confusion and fury.
However, going against the tide it requires fearlessness. For many in our world, fearlessness in the face of immeasurable opposition is unthinkable, and unjustly considered a sign of “madness”.
In spite of his troubles “May future generations look back on our work and say that these were mane and women who, in a moment of great crisis, stood up to their politicians, the opinion-makers and the establishment and saved their country .”
–Ron Paul–
Anonymous
February 8, 2012 at 1:09 pmYes, don’t give in to external pressures, and stand up for your principles, by all means.
But does that include paying your debts?
Chuck
February 8, 2012 at 5:48 pmSo, why doesen’t the Catholic Church bail out Greece?
John C
February 8, 2012 at 7:04 pmIt is sad that the Archbishop failed to speak up when the Greeks were living beyond their means and could have avoided this pain but rather hides behind the fact that the Greeks have an ancient and historically significant culture but is socialist and broke.
Anthony Maher
February 9, 2012 at 6:11 amThe Archbishop is detailing the results of Albert Einstein’s explanation of how Fiscal Physics is being applied in a totally destructive way. Einstein sketches out the only way to have a chance at solving the EU debt crisis, which affects not only Greece, at:
http://euro-meltdown.blogspot.com/
Anthony