April 26, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

The prosecutor’s office is investigating the cases of anti-Axis: families with six children, monks on Mount Athos

The prosecutor’s office in northern Greece opened criminal cases against the family of anti-axers, as well as against the Athonite monks from the Esfigmen monastery, who oppose vaccination.

Authorities stepped in after a father of six told media that he would not allow his children to go to school due to mandatory Covid tests and masks.

On Mount Athos, the abbot of a monastery appealed to the authorities because of the refusal of several monks to vaccinate, and also because they influence believers to not get vaccinated against Covid-19.

Vaccine Opponents Family: Educated Children

A father of six, from the village of Serres in northeastern Greece, spoke on Mega TV on Wednesday, saying his four children are not attending classes due to measures to combat the coronavirus. He claimed that he was sending the children to school, but because of the measures taken, the teachers did not let them into the premises.

Teachers “torture” his children by forcing them to wear masks, and the necessary “self-tests are carried out without their consent,” the father said. He further argued that these measures were in violation of the “fundamental rights” of children and “contrary to the constitution”.

It turned out that this is the second school year in which children, two of them in elementary and two in secondary school, do not attend classes, and they risk missing the school year due to the large number of reported absenteeism. The father claimed to have hired private tutors to teach them, although he studied at home in Grech.

According to state television ERT, the claims of the father drew attention to the case of the prosecutor Serres, who turned to social services with a request to find out the circumstances in which children do not go to school …

Parents are at risk of being deprived of parental rights, media reported.

The prosecutor opened a case against the anti-Athonite monks of Athos

The Prosecutor of Thessaloniki ordered a preliminary investigation after a call from the abbot of the monastery of the “correct” * Esphigmen Bartholomew. He complained against the actions of the “wrong” ** anti-vaccination monks who refuse to inject, as well as their “radical rhetoric” they urge believers not to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

As part of the investigation, the prosecutor’s office will call Bartholomew to testify and name those to whom he refers to determine if they are spreading fake news.

Monasteries of Athos affected by COVID-19: several dozen monks, including three from “old” Esfigmenhave fallen ill since the beginning of the pandemic, and some have died due to complications of the disease. Of all the monks agreed to be vaccinated only 25%… The rest either took a wait-and-see attitude, or, like the rebels from the “old” ** Esfigmen, spoke out categorically against it.

“Every fourth was vaccinated – about 420 monks, 50% were ill, and the remaining 25-30% had isolated cases in sketes. There are about 500 monks living in them, there is less control, since there are no abbots, and they are mostly late to ask for help, ”says Athanasios Martinos, civil governor of Athos.

Recently, monks’ interest in vaccination has faded and practically disappeared.

* The “new” brotherhood of Esphigmen appeared at the beginning of the 21st century, after the appointment of a new abbot Bartholomew and the division of the monastery into 2 brotherhoods, “old” and “new”.

** Incorrect (old) or, as they are called, “pAskolniks monks of the monastery Esfigmen began in the mid-60s, after the meeting of the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras with Pope Paul Six. Then they left, as if it sounded in legal jargon, “into a deaf unconscious.” The monks considered the agreements of the Ecumenical Patriarch a betrayal of Orthodoxy, which they publicly declared. In response, they received a reprimand from the international church community “for making public the secret spiritual life” and the title of “schismatics” from all the Athonite monasteries.

In 2017 criminal court Thessaloniki sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison Abbot Methodius, from the “old brotherhood” of the rebellious Esphigmen monastery on Mount Athos, and the monk Antipas – for resisting and using “Molotov cocktails” when trying to evict them from the monastery in July 2013.

More about the situation at the Esphigmen Monastery by link





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