Purging the Church
When the Church’s clerics and followers are left speechless by the barrage of accusations and revelations about the behavior of certain senior churchmen, and when Archbishop Christodoulos himself vows to eradicate corruption «without compromise,» then that is exactly what believers and citizens in general will expect. They will expect a purge of the Church of Greece, which is in danger of being turned into a bazaar, or a center for shady dealings. They will expect a crackdown on those desecrating a house of worship with their self-interested behavior and blackening the name of churchmen in general. And when revelations abound in the media about churchmen possessing bank accounts with huge deposits, it will take quite a considerable amount of explanation to convince people that these are not the «personal» accounts of the clerics in question but «collective» accounts held together with other beneficiaries. Finally, when news reports broadcast recorded telephone conversations featuring a cleric claiming to wield control over some judge or other who can «fix» trials, it is inconceivable that the Church should refuse to hand over the cassettes to the judicial authorities for further investigation on the pretext that they are the result of illegal wiretapping…
