Christodoulos I (Athens)

Archbishop Christodoulos I.

Christodoulos I ( Greek Χριστόδουλος ; born January 17, 1939 as Christos Paraskevaidis (Χρήστος Παρασκευαΐδης) in Athens ; † January 28, 2008 ibid) was Archbishop of Athens and head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece .

Life

He studied in Athens and was ordained a priest there . After further studies, he was awarded a Dr. theol. PhD. He was ordained bishop on July 14, 1974 and was Metropolitan of Dimitrias from 1974 to 1988. From 1985 to 1998 he was responsible for the ecumenical relations of the Church of Greece . On April 29, 1998, he was called to be Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

On April 29, 1998, he was elected head of the Greek Orthodox Church by the highest body of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod, as the successor to Seraphim I. The highlight of his tenure was the visit of Pope John Paul II to Athens in 2001; it was the first visit by a Pope to Greece since the two churches separated in 1054. With his official return visit in 2006 to Benedict XVI. he was the first head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Rome. In a joint declaration, the express will for ecumenical cooperation was expressed: "It is our joint responsibility to overcome the various difficulties and painful experiences of the past in love and truth."

Christodoulos died of complications from cancer. After his death became known, a four-day state mourning was declared in Greece . The archbishop was laid out in the Athens Cathedral, where, according to the Greek police, more than 300,000 people, including many young people, paid their final respects. Christodoulos received a state funeral with the full honors of a head of state who had died in office. On the day of his burial, schools and offices were closed; During the entire state of mourning, the flags on public buildings and the Greek embassies waved at half-mast. The Divine Liturgy in the cathedral and the subsequent burial ceremony in the First Athens Cemetery were conducted by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at the request of the late Archbishop .

In 2008 the Metropolitan of Thebes, Hieronymus , was elected as his successor .

Act

Christodoulos was considered a conservative, but also a contentious innovator in the relationship of the church to politics and the people. He repeatedly expressed himself negatively about globalization and the European Union , supported, against the will of the government, the retention of the entry of religious affiliation in the Greek identity card, and referred to the ancient Greeks as “pagans and idolaters,” whose temples were rightly largely demolished in late antiquity to win building materials for Christian churches. His statement (later relativized) that the superpowers were jointly responsible for the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 caused great anger . At the same time he opened up the church more to the youth, ended the condemnation of modern pop and rock music and modern clothing styles by the church, and urged the youth to come to church as they are. When the socialist government under Kostas Simitis dismantled the privileges of the Greek Orthodox Church and u. a. In accordance with the standards of the European Union decided to abolish the indication of religious affiliation on identity cards and passports, Christodoulos mobilized three million people to a protest march in Athens. Ultimately, however, the Greek Supreme Court ruled in favor of the reform.

Because of his activities in the northern Greek and Aegean dioceses , the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I temporarily terminated communion with Christodoulos I in 2004 (a form of excommunication). The dispute over this was however settled, so that at the end of his term of office Christodoulos also had good relations with the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Christodoulos was awarded honorary doctorates for his work by the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Iași University (2000) and the Craiova University (2003).

Web links

• Entry about Christodoulos I. on prooriente.at

Individual evidence

1. Jump up ↑ Church Loses Head , NTV , Jan. 28, 2008
2. ↑ Christoudoulos dies - Vatican pays tribute to the head of the church . Vatican Radio , January 28, 2008.
3. ^ Head of the Greek Orthodox Church has died , AFP , January 28, 2008
4. ^ Greece mourns the head of the Orthodox , Hamburger Abendblatt , January 29, 2008
5. ↑ Hansgeorg Hermann: In the name of the archbishop. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, July 28, 2007, p. 26.
6. ↑ Christodoulos Talks to NH on Crisis  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), OrthodoxNews, May 25, 2004 (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Seraphim	Archbishop of Athens and All Greece 1998–2008	Jerome II