Finnish Court Upholds Suspension of Priest Elected to EU Body
15/12/09
When Mitro Repo, a priest in the Finnish Orthodox Church, was elected as a member of the European Parliament, he ran afoul of church laws dating back more than 1500 years.
Several articles of canonical law forbid priests from taking on “worldly tasks.” Repo has argued that these rules are outdated.
Last May, the bishops of the church banned Repo from serving as a priest while he was a candidate, and indicated that ban would be extended if he were elected, according to the Helsingin Sanomat. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he won a seat in the European Parliament in elections this summer. Repo appealed the church’s ruling to the Supreme Administrative Court.
In a ruling handed down this week, the court found that nothing illegal took place, and that this is an internal matter of the church. Under the ban, Repo may not use a priest’s cassock or any other insignia of the church.
Repo has said he will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
