There is no doubt that the Church wields considerable influence over a significant portion of the Greek population. This translates into a lot of votes, and politicians are well aware of this. That is why they make sure either to meet the demands of the church leadership or to back down when the church objects.We have to go back about 25 years to find a “battle” that the state won against the church. It was the famous issue of the new ID cards that did not list religion, provoking the wrath of the church, which had reacted with massive rallies in Athens and elsewhere. The Prime Minister was Costas Simitis, and the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece was Christodoulos.
The 2018 agreement between then-Prime Minister Tsipras and Archbishop Ieronymos, which provided that priests would no longer be civil servants but that the state would continue to pay their salaries in the form of a subsidy, did not go through. This was because it met with strong opposition from the priests, who wanted to remain civil servants.
It should be noted that while the Greek Constitution protects religious freedom, it designates the Orthodox Church as the “prevailing” religion, which played a role in preserving Greek national identity during the years of subjugation to the Ottoman Turks. This is the case in very few European Union countries.
Therefore, the close ties between politicians and the church leadership come as no surprise. Nevertheless, the exorbitant pay raises the government granted to the Archbishop and the metropolitans—which will be paid for out of the budget—have raised eyebrows among many, as they are difficult to justify on the grounds of increased productivity.
Once again, the government is granting large pay raises to certain segments of the population—such as uniformed personnel last year—while invoking fiscal discipline for others, such as civil servants. And of course, the opposition parties look on indifferently, as both they and the government have their eyes on the votes of citizens who are influenced by the church.
Without downplaying thorny issues, such as church property and the desire of priests to remain civil servants, at some point the Greek state must become fully secular with an institutional separation of church and state. This would ease the burden on the state budget; the church would no longer be constrained by state laws and would gain autonomy, while being able to return to its spiritual mission, setting aside political games.
International studies conducted over time show that the institutional separation of church and state aids a country’s economic development. In the study titled “Religious Change Preceded Economic Change in the 20th Century” by the universities of Bristol and Tennessee, which analyzed data from 100 countries over 100 years (the 20th century), the conclusion was clear. The decline in religious influence precedes the creation of wealth.
Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary of Harvard found in another study that the separation of church and state affects productivity. This is because valuable resources, such as church funding, could have a more positive impact on the rate of growth.
We are not so naive as to believe that the Greek political system can change enough to proceed with the institutional separation of church and state. As evidenced by the large salary increases for the clergy, the intention is quite different.