Political class scolded by archbishop after blessing

The head of the Greek Orthodox Church on Monday criticized the country’s leftist-led government for pushing draft legislation that will allow individuals to freely determine their gender identity irrespective of how it was recorded at birth.

“All these are just games. The Church has its own views,” Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens said after the customary blessing marking the launch of the first parliamentary session after the summer recess.

“Our nation has its [own] traditions, it has the family. The rest is just contrivances so that we waste our time,” said Ieronymos, who has often clashed with the political class.

Earlier, addressing Parliament Speaker Nikos Voutsis, Ieronymos said that talk about relations between the Church and state should not obscure the former’s role in galvanizing the identity of the Greek nation and of ethnic Greeks outside the country’s borders.

“Have you considered what the role of the Church is, not only in Europe but the entire world?… The [Church] has more to offer than [the country’s] embassies,” he said.