orthodoxrights.org

December 22, 2015. The Representatives and the Abbots of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos addressed a letter to the Greek Minister of Justice Mr. Paraskevopoulos, as the website romfea.gr reports.

The letter says that “this new law is an aberration from the principles and the values of the Orthodox Tradition, which consists the root and the identity of the Greek culture. As orthodox Christians, we absolutely respect the personal options of everyone and his right to be inside or to stay out of the church life, because we believe that no one has the right to violate human freedom, which is a gift from God. On the other side, it is completely far from the ethics of our people and it is very provocative to consider the same-sex couple as family, by recognising for it social and legal consequences as “adoption of children” etc.

For this reason, we please you wholehearted not to adopt this new law especially before Christmas. Our voice is coming from sincere interest for the progress of this country, which Greek people trusted to your government.

Maybe the temporary withdrawal of this bill would provide the necessary time for open discussion and would give the right to Greek people to express their opinion about such a serious issue, as it is the institution of family.

This solicitation of the Fathers from Mount Athos is conveyed to all political parties and to all deputies of the Greek National Assembly with hope that they will contribute as they can to avoid the urgent adoption of this law”.

Greek text of the original letter in pdf

Document from romfea.gr