Greek Ministry Sues Orthodox Monastery Over Land-Exchange Deal
By Natalie Weeks
June 28 (Bloomberg) — Greece sued an Orthodox Christian monastery over a land deal, seeking ownership recognition and a damages payment.
Greece’s State Legal Council filed its case against Vatopedi monastery on June 25th asking that an Athens court recognize the government as the owner of 180 stremmata (44.5 acres) in northern Greece that was part of a land exchange deal in 2007, according to an e-mailed statement from the Athens- based finance ministry today.
The government also asked for 10 million euros ($12.3 million) in moral harm payments, the statement said.
Two members of former Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis’s government resigned in the furor over the sale of state land to the monastery, a transaction that cost Greek taxpayers 100 million euros, according to media reports.
Calls to the monastery outside of normal operating hours weren’t answered. The Vatopedi monastery, on the autonomous monastic community of Mount Athos in northern Greece, is administered by Patriarch Vartholomeos, the spiritual head of the world’s estimated 250 million Orthodox Christians.
–Editor: Christopher Scinta.
To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Weeks in Athens nweeks2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net
Such a lawsuit, whether legally justified or not, is grounds for instant anathema/excommunication for any one suing or adjudicating the case. Very sad.
As one exploring Orthodoxy, is it accurate to say that the Oecumenical Patriarch is THE “..spiritual head of the world’s estimated 250 million Orthodox Christians,” or is the Church not governed by the Holy Spirit through councils and bishops in her various jurisdictions?
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