Orthodox Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos pronounced his position about the religious course in Greek schools
September 27, 2015. Orthodox Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos reacted to the statement of The new Greek Deputy Education Minister Sia Anagnostopoulou announcing the simplification of the procedure for opting-out of religious classes for Greek students. According to the present system, a student must sign an official school document declaring his religion or conversely declaring himself as an atheist in order to be released from religious studies classes. The Deputy Minister has vowed to change this, stating that a signed letter from a parent should be sufficient.
The reaction of the Greek Archbishop was very strong and he reminded to the new Deputy Education Minister that her plan is against the Greek Constitution, which mentions clearly that the education of Greek students must be national and following the Greek Orthodox religion. He added also that if the Government wants to follow her plan it has to change the Constitution but first it must ask Greek people if they want it.
The new Deputy Education Minister expressed the respect of the Greek Government to the Greek Orthodox Church but she insisted that freedom of religion must be respected in the national schools.