A superficial catharsis?
The much-discussed purging of corruption from the ranks of the Church of Greece does not inspire much optimism, neither the «measures» proposed by Archbishop Christodoulos to ease the Church out its crisis nor the general climate of the Holy Synod’s convention last weekend. Irrespective of whether the clergy has been fragmented by this burgeoning crisis or not, the public statements made by certain bishops and the leaks of various exchanges within the Holy Synod reveal an atmosphere of mistrust and deviously maneuvered balances of power. These are incompatible with the profile and mission of the Church and also create the impression that the daggers have merely been temporarily slipped back into their sheaths and will be removed at the next opportunity, with even less inhibition than before… But the measures heralded by the archbishop also appear to lack dynamism and decisiveness, at least compared to the standards expected by the general public and also by many clerics who respect the significance of their mission and are justified in expecting the much-debated catharsis of the Church to be both bold and substantial… The way in which the archbishop announced these measures was also unfortunate… What is the point in publicly admitting that certain clerics have taken part in corrupt practices or transactions without condemning them and dismissing them from the Church’s ranks…?
