The Archbishopric of Athens’ press office on Monday categorically denied same day media accounts of purported dialogues between Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos with main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during an alleged meeting between the two men.
The press office said “such a meeting with this content (of talks) never happened”.
The press claims were circulated in ruling SYRIZA party’s low-circulation affiliated daily newspaper, “Avgi”, as well as the pro-government Sunday weekly “Documento” and the Athens daily “Efimerida ton Syntakton”.
A provisional agreement between leftist Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and Ieronymos earlier this month over revised church-state relations in the country, with the highlight being the removal of roughly 10,000 clerics from the civil servants’ payroll, was subsequently rejected by the Church of Greece’s Holy Synod. Much of the political opposition also criticized what they said was the abrupt announcement and the cursory nature of talks.
Ieronymos is the primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece.
