The President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou welcomed the significant contribution of the Church of Greece in various areas during the meeting she had this morning with Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and all of Greece.
The meeting took place at the Presidential Mansion in a very good atmosphere.
During the meeting, the Archbishop of Athens stressed that the Church as a whole fought a big battle and upheld the decisions made by the Greek State, although the times were tough in terms of religion, services, etc. The Archbishop added that it was very difficult for the priests to celebrate the services behind closed doors without the participation of the faithful. “But both for the canons of the Church and for the laws of the State, the supreme law is the human being. And we must respect and serve the human being. And for the Church, the human being is the purpose,” said the Archbishop. If human beings do not exist, the Archbishop said, the Church does not exist. So we did what we could with difficulties because the Church made many steps forward, he added.
On her part, the President of the Hellenic Republic welcomed the Archbishop noting that thanks to his prestige and responsibility, these difficulties were addressed and the Archbishop contributed, as far as possible, to deal with the consequences of the pandemic in the best way for our country. The president expressed her hope that the Church as a whole would continue to send messages of love and solidarity to our fellow human beings because we are in dire need of them in the period to come.
