Ieronymos

With a desire for mutual rapprochement between Church and State, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Archbishop Ieronymos are to visit tomorrow, together, the structures of the Archdiocese in Delesi, Biotia

The Church loves but does not leave its positions, Ieronymos added

The annual parade of the Armed Forces for Greece's March 25th Independence Day concluded on Monday after passing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of Parliament at Syntagma Square, where President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and political and military officials were gathered.

The parade also drew a crowd of thousands of onlookers waving Greek flags and cheering the troops on.

Greece's Independence Day on March 25 and Greek Orthodox Easter on May 3 will serve as a barometer of the Church's response to legislation passed by Parliament institutionalizing same sex marriage. 

Amid the backlash from some clerics over Parliament's recent ratification of a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, Archbishop Ieronymos ordered an ecclesiastical inquiry on Tuesday concerning the archimandrite of the Holy Archdiocese of Athens, Father Seraphim Dimitriou, over his recent behavior toward a socialist MP.

More tension looms between Church and state over the bill for same-sex civil marriage and adoption by such couples which Parliament recently passed, after Greek Archbishop Ieronymos reportedly expressed dismay with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' speech during the House debate on the legislation.

Archbishop Ieronymos, the leader of the Orthodox Church of Greece, supposedly took a relatively soft stance on the issue of same-sex marriage.

The recent unanimous rejection by the influential Greek Church's governing Holy Synod of government plans to legalize same-sex marriage is perceived as a success for Archbishop Ieronymos in navigating the perennial antagonism between the more modernizing and conservative, at times obscurantist, factions within the Hierarchy.

A recent statement by Metropolitan Ieronymos, bishop of Athens and all Greece, regarding the baptism of children from same-sex couples has ignited a debate within the Greek Orthodox Church. Ieronymos declared that the church would baptize these children once they reach a certain age and express a desire for the sacrament.

The public statement on Thursday by Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece that the Church of Greece would agree to the baptism of children of same-sex couples when they grow up, if they so desire, surprised senior clerics, who referred to his address just two days ago at the meeting of the Holy Synod, where he had stressed that the Hierarchy will speak in one voice.