War is waged against the Church: we are under destruction, – Archbishop Jerome of Athens

The Church is set on the verge of survival, like all Greeks, Archbishop Jerome of Athens, the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church, said in his interview on the Easter eve, writes AgionOros.ru.

"We aren’t afraid of anything. The Greek Orthodox Church lived without the Charter, lived without Decrees, lived in the catacombs, survived martyrdom, Byzantine glory and 400 years of Turkish slavery.

What I would like to point out is that all the trials in the Church-state relationships following the creation of modern independent Greece were inventions and impacts of the West.

We are not against the distinct roles of the Church and the state. But if we have distinct roles, why the authorities take away the Church’s property whenever they want? Why does the government interfere in the life of the Church, declaring its communist "leftist" ideals and stressing that it has nothing in common with the Church?

Why does the state train priests? Let us be free to provide our own ecclesiastical education.

Imagine a minister who dares to point out to the Greek Muslims how they should study the Koran? Or tell Catholics how to study the Holy Scriptures? The same as for the Israelites.

But we as Greeks should not talk, say nothing. But those who are religious minorities have the right to say whatever they want and the state cannot do otherwise than to hear them.

But we are under such pressure, a war is being waged against us, we feel that we are under destruction.

We are exterminated with taxes. Particularly our monasteries. The Church, the administrative body, is trying to borrow money to cover its needs, but I do not know how long we can endure," stressed the hierarch.