Catholics live civilly but without recognition in Orthodox Greece

Published: 2007-08-06

PEROULADES, Greece (CNS) -- The metallic chords of a bouzouki pound through the evening breeze, as two black-clad dancers spin to enthusiastic applause in a tavern in Greece. When Nikos Aspiotis, a 30-year-old Orthodox, took over the tavern in this island village a year ago, he'd struggled for long hours to make the break at a local furniture factory. Today, with his English Catholic wife, Louise, he's paid off his debts and even found time to revive his dancing skills as the diners roll in through the summer months -- showing how ordinary people, regardless of faith and ethnicity, can live well together in this staunchly Orthodox Mediterranean country. But that is not always the case for the Catholic minority of Greece. "We're not persecuted -- we just don't have the same rights as the Orthodox majority," explained Archbishop Yannis Spiteris of Corfu, Zante and Kefalonia, the local ordinary. "The Greek government doesn't recognize our church, so officially we don't exist. Although I was born here on Corfu, I'm treated as a foreigner or at best a second-class citizen." The Catholic Church in Greece has 200,000 Greek and foreign members but no formal contacts with the country's Orthodox Church, whose leaders claim the membership of 97 percent of the population of 10.4 million.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .