CHURCH AND COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE.
The “stone fight”
between the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Church consists a ritual
that does not benefit neither part.
Article written by Tasos Michalas.
On Tuesday 10/09 the Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and the new General
Secretary of the K.K.E Dimitris Koutsoumbas, met at the Archdiocese. The
meeting was both important and instructive, since a General Secretary of the
K.K.E party met officially with the Archbishop of Athens.
The historian of the future will be asked to interpret the facts of the
visit. It seems, however, that the Communist Party and the Greek Church are
forced, due to circumstances to shake hands leaving the hard stone fight as
they discover that they don’t experience the happiest period in their history
and worry about what will follow. Those of the Church and the Leftists who show
self-awareness, attest that the two Bodies are suffering from stagnation. They
remained hostages of the past, committed to the data of the 1950s, when the
churches were "crowded" and leftists were admired for their courage
and heroism. Today, the characteristics of the people of the Church and the
K.K.E seem to be outdated. Their voice has no dynamism. Their arguments, their
sermons, their slogans, their positions, are parts of an era from which we are
far away. That is a bitter observation, but a true one: for many Greeks, the
Church and K.K.E constitute archaeological remains, which contain historical
symbolism. Nevertheless, they do not offer prospects for creative intervention
in the relatively advanced European environment we live in. So often the
representatives of these two Bodies feel as outcasts. They watch everything
moving in an unimaginable speed and development and the train of development
leaves without them.
The Church and the
K.K.E were not stillborn organizations but they became afterwards, as they had
left domestic issues which required immediate solutions, unresolved. For
example the issue of the inside well considered modernization, which every
serious organization needs in order to have duration and not temporary or
transitory presence. What is really strange, though, is that, while these two
Bodies often give the impression of being bankrupt (on organizational,
communicative, administrative level and so on), ended up believing that are the
healthiest parts of society. They are convinced of living under the
constellation of truth and virtue, of being the "salt of the Earth",
the fine dough which is required to be used exclusively in the production of
the social bread. This unusual assumption filled with theological-political
arrogance several Church and Leftist members considering, those who lie outside
their own fine pen, responsible for all the evils, but not themselves, in any
case.
The stagnation in the Church and K.K.E did not
happen all of a sudden. The pure Greek Orthodox and Socialist air was not
contaminated overnight, but gradually. This development was a correlation of
many shortcomings. Quite often hypocrisy and falsehood were placed over the
truth. The Values had been demoted while self interest gained ground as a full
value. Although the clergy ought to be the people’s deacons, they became a privileged
class, civil servants often prone to exert spiritual power to people. The
pulpit escaped from his mission, on several occasions: it was theory, not an
experience! Instead of exalting God’s splendors instructing people, it
sometimes functioned as the original source of attitudes leading to social
divisions and suspicion. It indicated that the Church of Christ is under the
supervision and guidance of people, who are not Saints or Holy persons or
angelic like, but the only thing they
have to demonstrate is the intense wordly and agonizing effort for
conquest of power.
Similarly, the
K.K.E from a pure bred, friendly oriented political formation , as it was supposed to
be, ended up to a graceless, dogmatic,
closed system, not always serving
national or Socialist interests. On the contrary , it followed blindly
as often as it wished , the suggestions
of Political dinosaurs who were anxious
for their own power, not for the welfare of the world or socialism’s fruitfulness. Besides, K.K.E
never succeeded in seeing or assessing the unseen side of the Church, which is
not of this world, but has direct reference to its founder, Jesus Christ, for
whose personality many Leftists feel deep respect despite their antipathy
towards the clergy.
The fact that the
Church and K.K.E were unable to transform in the receivers of modern concerns
-despite their differences--to develop the possibility of
"cooperation" , is due to the fact that at times were flanked by people of controversial ability,
genuineness, honesty, quality and honesty. Their views were absolute, harsh and
poor, so they brought both parts decades back. Also, some extreme reckless zeal
, was exhibited by people ,that thrive in both those places, fuels every
approach of benevolent thought, resulting
in constantly smoldering an undeclared
war between the two of these
"sacred monsters".
K.K.E held a strong antichurch stance for
decades following the hard-line, of the authoritarian Moscow. In socialist
countries – satellites of Moscow, Christians literally suffered, had tortures
and were shut in concentration camps.
They lived in terror and rejection, lost their lives, simply because they were
members of the Church and in ... Christian
Greece , Church men never uttered a good word for the anxieties
and struggles of honest Leftists, who were imprisoned, martyred and many of
whom died in exile.
I asked the German
Catholic priest, Albert Rapp, chaplain and good theologian, in Heidelberg why the Communist parties and churches
share the same hatred. Here’s what
he replied: "That’s bad, since
among these two Bodies there are common elements that should unite them. Both
are devoid of self-criticism, they are dogmatic, absolute in their beliefs! So,
they speak about freedom, while not leaving any room for free dialogue to grow
their free spaces, their opposite views
and democratic procedures. Since, the churches and the Communist parties
have so many in common, then why do they quarrel? "
Many mistakes were
made in the past both from K.K.E and the Church, too. And at this present
phase, these two bodies are
unfortunately still continuing,
to make unacceptable mistakes. The biggest of which, is that they haven’t believed in the need for
reformations in their context, so they stayed still, tied with the past. The
Church and K.K.E are not adjusted to the new reality that whatever does not
grow, is considered insolvent, insufficient to play a positive role in people's
lives. (It is no coincidence that Greek women rarely accept to connect with
prospective clergymen?)
Nowadays, the
Byzantine splendor of the Greek Church has suffered severe contraction and
K.K.E comes out to seek for fans. These
two Bodies should realize that the "stone- fight between them" is a
ritual that bears no fruit– despite all their so-called differences-they can
multiply the chances of their "cooperation". No wonder, in our
constantly and rapidly changing times, when there is a lack of a one-Party
government. The creation of Political
Alliances is a serious issue not only in the fields of politics, diplomacy or
the economy, but also in the field of the Church. ..! In the context of this
need, the Archbishop’s meeting with the
General Secretary of K.K.E can only be
interpreted as a gesture of maturity and optimism.
* Tassos Michalas is a journalist, Magister of the
Journalism Faculty at the University of Berlin.
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