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Dec 29th, 2019
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From our newspaper here and from other websites, the unrest seems to be spreading to France, Spain, and the UK.
There is also the general campaign against Christians that is going on in Iraq and other Muslim countries; also the campaign against Christians by Hindus in India.
Somehow it seems the whole world is going up in flames.
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The Catholic News Agency reported that the Catholic Bishops Conference of Greece on Wednesday, December 10th, weighed in on the riots: Athens, Dec 10, 2008 / 10:54 pm (CNA).- The Catholic Greek Bishops Conference has issued a statement blaming the violent riots throughout Greece on a “moral void” resulting from a “detachment from Christian social doctrine and the abandonment of the common values of humanity.”
A policeman’s shooting of a student has sparked five days of rioting and a general strike in Greece. The 15-year-old boy was allegedly among youths who threw stones at police cars on Saturday in an area known for its political radicalism, Agence France Presse reports.
Though initial accounts claimed the student was hit by bullets three times in the chest, a post-mortem examination indicated he was killed by a ricochet.
The nationwide unrest includes clashes at the student’s funeral and street battles with police in which students throw firebombs, pavement slabs, and other missiles and police respond with teargas.
The two officers involved in the shooting were questioned before a magistrate at a courthouse, which rioters attacked with two petrol bombs.
Banks, schools, and hospitals have closed while demonstrators have surrounded the Greek Parliament, police stations, and some Greek embassies in other countries, the AFP reports.
On Tuesday the Greek Bishops Conference called for a “peaceful revolution of values” to escape the “blind alley” which is “testifying to the moral void that exists within the state and social institutions.”
The bishops expressed their sympathies for the dead student’s family and asked the State for “every humane care.”
“We are experiencing a deep crisis of values,” wrote conference president Bishop Francesco Papamanolis. “The detachment from the Christians social doctrine and the abandonment of the common values of humanity and the respect of life, of people, property and difference, as well as unbridled materialism, lead to what is happening in our country in these days.”
The bishops said the Catholic Church invites the government, political parties, trade unions, intellectuals, and citizens of any age, class, or ideology to cooperate for the peaceful revolution of values.”
“Only through a sincere dialogue, based on the common values of humanity, which are also Christian values, and on the respect of the human being will the further fall of values be stopped and will the right way out of this blind alley be found,” the bishops’ statement concluded. Thank you Amado... I am absolutely disappointed that not a peep was heard from any of the Bishops or the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece. What a contrast to the outspoken leader Greece had in His Eminence, Archbishop Christodoulos. Forgive me if I sound like I am putting anyone down; all have their particular charisms, but the times are such that we need charisms which are more visible to guide us...the Catholic Bishops of Greece have atleast provided that in this statement. Alice
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I admire the Greeks and their contributions to civilization. That said, however, they don't have a history of stable governments in more recent time. I have thought, at times, that if they stopped bickering with each other and pulled together, Constantinople might not be in the hands of the Turks.
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I haven't added much to this thread because it is complex...the Greeks are by nature a volatile people and some of it has to do with not wanting things to change...
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The Archbishop loved the youth and they felt it...it melted their anger and brought them closer to Christ. He told them to come to church in their jeans, he loved them and he enjoyed them. We should all take note of his charismas, and try to emulate them, because as icons of Christ, we can all change a young life by love.
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In Christ,
Alice[/color] Alice, I wanted to thank you for this excellent post and the power behind it. I hardly ever post in here. I, too, wish the leaders of the Church would do more and more, not waiting for the temporal leaders to restore order. Whose peace is greater? Man's or God's? May the Bishops from the Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Churches all step up here as Archbishop Christodoulos did. May God grant His soul rest in Paradise. Yes, we, the Church, are Icons of Christ, Who is the Icon of the Father. When we adore and contemplate the Holy Icons on the walls and altars of our churches, do we contemplate how the Holy Spirit makes us living Icons to the world without. They may never once gaze upon a Holy Icon within the walls of a physical building, but through our sacrifice, courage, and burning love shown to them in actions, they will gaze upon Christos Pantocrator, Who conquers all hearts and sets them afire. (St. Luke 24:32) I was recently discussing with a Bosnian friend of mine another despised group in Europe: the Roma. Yes, they have a bad reputation as thieves, restless gyspsies, and loud, obnoxious disturbers of the peace and prone to the occult. However, before the eyes of God, they are redeemable, just as the anarchists and socialists. Without God's mercy and the continual transformation of salvation through the Church and the Holy Mysteries, we are no better. I pray for the Balkans everyday, particularly Greece at this time. It is a place of great love and great hate. All the better place for God to do His work. May God's great mercy and riches be with you all.
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And may Agios Nikolaos come to the aid of the Greek people, whom he is patron saint of.
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