Crisis: Greek Church to draft three-year plan to curb debt

 

ATHENS, OCTOBER - The Church of Greece is drawing up a three-year financial plan in a bid to determine the size of its debt and to exploit its assets to secure its autonomy, Archbishop Ieronymos told a session of the Holy Synod on Tuesday, as reported today by daily Kathimerini.

"The situation today is dire," Ieronymos told clerics, saying that the Church's debts and the general economic situation "have brought us to our knees." A three-year program would "present a picture of our debts and our reserves as well as outlining the impact of a new legislative framework on the exploitation of our assets," he said. Emphasizing that "without assets we will never have autonomy," Ieronymos also set the scene for a discussion about a possible change in the relationship between the Church and the state. "Will we let events overtake us?" the archbishop remarked and called for the creation of a committee of clerics and independent experts to discuss a likely constitutional revision and its implications for the Church. (ANSAmed).