The Church needs saints, Ieronymos tells Kathimerini

Possessing all the wisdom of the institution he represents, with his finger on the pulse of society and displaying a surprisingly open mind for a man of his years, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos is always a fascinating interlocutor.

I met the 82-year-old primate of the Church of Greece at his office on Friday morning, expecting to find him dispirited by the experience of being caught in the middle of a maelstrom triggered by the government's decision to close the country's churches as part of restrictions to stem the spread of the coronavirus. There was the state and its experts on one side, and hardline clerics on the other, accusing him of betraying his faith by upholding the closure. And all of this was going on at a time when he had to be fitted with a pacemaker.

Nevertheless, Ieronymos was anything dispirited. What I found instead was a man who is...