In Kalamata, among a crowd of faithful, the Holy Metropolis of Messinia held a one-day Conference entitled “Relations between the Church and the State concerning the revision of the Constitution”.
The rapporteur Mr. Theodore Papatheodorou, Μember of the Parliament for Achaia and Professor at the University of Peloponnese, referred extensively to the current stage of the procedure of the Revision of the Constitution, focusing on the discussion about the Article 3 revision, which includes the relations between the State and the Church.
Mr. Charalambos Anthopoulos, Professor of Public Law at Greek Open University, spoke about the scientific aspect of the above Revision and its importance on the basis of the Constitutional Law. He also pinpointed the danger entailed in simplification, after the revision of special Articles, e.g. Article 3 on public life.
Mr. Ioannis Panagiotopoulos, Assistant Professor of Theology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, referred to the history of the Constitution since the founding of the Greek State and highlighted its “disorders” at times, from the perspective of Theology and History.
The Conference was concluded with the speech of Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Messinia who expressed his opposition to the attempted formation of a State of religious neutrality due to the dangerousness it entails.
Referring to the much talked-of issue of clergy payroll, he repeated his firm belief that the State does not pay the priests out of compassion and that any change of the existing status must presuppose serious and extensive dialogue.
