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Latest update: 27/06/2011
- Greece
Debt crisis puts pressure on wealthy Orthodox church
The wealthy Greek Orthodox Church is under pressure to do more to help the country while it struggles through a debilitating financial crisis.
By Alexia KEFALAS / Catherine NORRIS TRENT / Willy BRACCIANO France 24 special correspondents in Athens (video)
FRANCE 24 (text)
FRANCE 24 (text)
As Greek faces a dire financial crisis and risks defaulting on its debt, many are calling on the Orthodox church to take less and give more.
The Greek Orthodox Church owns property worth some €700 billion – more than double the country’s national debt. And yet it is the struggling Greek state that pays the salaries and pensions of all the Orthodox clerics in the country.
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Comments (11)
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Greek crisis
I am surprised to read that the Orthodox Church is so wealthy
and has assets of Hotels,parking lots and naturally their churches.At the same time their priests are paid by the State.
I think they could start by taking a salary cut.They are however helping with daily soup and food kitchens.
church
its about time, the country pays church takes away, because God certainly doesn't need the money. Let the churchs give back all the money. if they have more land than the congregations need to worship it should be cashed in.
Wealth-Broke Greek Nation-Wealthy Greek Orthodox Church
Give the country 50% of your wealth, soon you will be throwinmg it in the streets anyhow. PGL Canada
Response: Confiscate, then criticiae
To criticize the Greek Orthodox Church for having the salaries of the clergy paid by the State ignores the fact that the State has confiscated much of the Greek Orthodox assests over the years whilst promising to pay those salaries in return for the confiscation of the assests. It is as if a burglar stole from a business then complained that the business was profiting from the assests which the burglar was unable to steal at the time of the burglary. Socialism at its most egregious and most open: complain that an entity with assests must surrender (be taxed) the assests, then complain that the entity still has assests which have not been surrendered (taxed). Once all the assests are taxed out of existance (stolen/confiscated/distributed), there will be no assests left to tax. As the story about the elder Rockerfeller teaches: If we each get our share of the assests of an entity, what good is the ten cents which is our shate compared to the jobs, interest on the shares, and charitable contributions a large and wealthy organization has at its disposal to do good at a very low level of overhead? The G.O. Church accepted the confiscation of its properties as a part of a contract: now the beneficiaries of that confiscation want more.
wow, thats a lot
wow, thats a lot
Greek Debt Vs. Church Wealth
So what's the argument?! Let the Church pay off the government debt. In exchange the Church gets 51% of seats in the Greek parliment and has permission to turn the country into a for-profit shrine. It's a win-win for Germany and France as they don't have to bail out the Greeks anymore. Having a religious government...sounds OK to me. Kinda the Greek variant of Iran. Let's go for it!
State and clerical salaries
The state paying clerical salaries and benefits is a horrible idea on many counts.
Get rid of this
Get rid of this church..lining your pockets for thousands of years..and then you can pay off the debt...then you can start from day 1..good advice !!
Misleading Headline
It is very misleading to refer to the church as wealthy as property value estimates are based on how much land would be worth should churches be torn down, the land sold, and another business built on the site to replace it.
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