"The pope is unacceptable in Greece! He should repent!" the priest told reporters after being removed from the scene.

According to The Associated Press, Francis "appeared not to notice" the interruption and continued on his way to his meeting with the leader of Greece's Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos.

Francis's visit to Greece and Cyprus last week aimed to further accelerate Catholic-Orthodox ties and collaboration.

The pontiff began his mission in Cyprus on Thursday after meeting with state officials that afternoon and evening.

He spent Friday strengthening the church's already good relations with the island's majority Orthodox Christians and encouraging its small Catholic community, which includes thousands of mostly Filipino migrant workers.

He also spent time meeting with Archbishop Chrysostomos and the Holy Synod in Nicosia.

The agenda focused on reconciliation between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church, after centuries of divisive competition and mistrust.

His aim wasn't to discuss each faith's means of encountering the Lord, Francis explained, "but of the risk of absolutizing certain customs and habits that do not require uniformity and assent on the part of all".

He urged both Churches to avoid becoming paralysed by fear of openness or bold gestures and to steer away from speaking of "irreconcilable difference" that has nothing to do with the Gospel.

"Let us not permit the ‘traditions,' in the plural and with a small ‘t', to prevail over ‘Tradition,' in the singular and with a capital ‘T,'" he added.

If the Churches set aside abstract concepts and were to collaborate, for example in works of charity, education and the promotion of human dignity, they would rediscover their fraternity, Francis said.

"Centuries of division and separation have made us assimilate, even involuntarily, hostility and prejudice with regard to one another, preconceptions often based on scarce and distorted information and spread by aggressive and polemical literature. This too makes crooked the path of God, which is straight and directed to concord and unity," Pope Francis declared.

"It is my heartfelt hope that there will be increased opportunities for encounter, for coming to know one another better, for eliminating preconceptions, and for listening with docility to our respective experiences of faith.

"This will prove for each of us an exhortation and incentive to do better, and bring a spiritual fruit of consolation."

Sources

• America magazine
• Greek Reporter
• The Week

During his Angelus address on Sunday Francis said he "follows with concern the tensions in the eastern Mediterranean." Avoiding mentioning the nations involved, he prayed for the "instability" in the area.

"I appeal for constructive dialogue and respect for international law in order to resolve the conflicts that threaten the peace of the peoples of that region," the Pope added.

At present Greece's government is discussing plans to buy new military aircraft from France while Turkey is moving to explore for hydrocarbons in waters in the eastern Mediterranean that Athens claims to own.

Tensions are escalating between Greece and Turkey over what proportion of the Mediterranean sea can be judged to belong to each of the two nations.

At stake is potentially vast reserves of oil and natural gas in the region - something other Mediterranean countries have already begun to profit from.

Turkey's push in the eastern Mediterranean is bringing regional countries and the European Union together in opposition, with France's leaders eager to step in.

Last week, fighter aircraft from France and the United Arab Emirates joined the Hellenic armed forces for joint military exercises based out of Souda Naval Base on Crete.

Relations between Greece and Turkey have been strained for many decades.

The increased economic importance of maritime resources has led to military threats from both sides.

The two countries recently signed maritime agreements - Turkey with Libya and Greece with Egypt - outlining clashing interpretations of the border between the two territories.

Military maneuvers by both countries have continued to escalate the situation.

Two weeks ago Greek and Turkish frigates shadowing a Turkish survey ship, collided.

Last week Turkish F-16 jets prevented six Greek F-16s entering an area where Turkey was operating.

Although both Greece and Turkey are NATO members, NATO been unable to resolve the issues between them so far.

The EU says Turkey could face economic and diplomatic sanctions unless progress is made in reducing tensions.

A council of foreign ministers have reportedly agreed to a draft set of sanctions.

On 30 August, Turkey's president, Recep Erdogan, called France and Turkey's leaders "greedy and incompetent".

The Turkish foreign affairs minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu also said if Greece expands its maritime borders in the Aegean Sea, this will be a cause for war.

Source

• Al-Monitor
• The Tablet
• Middle East Monitor

Ensuring worshippers complied with the country's bans on movement amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic were of concern to the authorities.

Law enforcers monitored churches. In addition, streets were patrolled and drones deployed.

Nikos Hardalias, Greece's civil protection minister in charge of the country's day-to-day COVID-19 response, warned fines would be doubled if Greeks were found to be indulging in "purposeless movement" over the long weekend.

In other years, Easter - which is Greece's most sacred holiday - includes celebrations, fireworks, spit-roasted lamb, music and dancing.

"This Easter is different. We will not go to our villages. We will not roast in our yards. We will not go to our churches. And, of course, we will not gather in the homes of relatives and friends," government spokesman Stelios Petsas said.

"For us to continue being together, this year we stay apart."

Greece has established strict rules during the pandemic.

It has been shown to be the continent's best-performing country in both flattening the curve and slowing down the spread of the virus in a study released this week by the international Bridge Tank thinktank.

So far 105 people have died of the virus in Greece, which has a population of 11 million.

The country has 2,207 Confirmed cases and 69 critically ill people.

These numbers are also lower than any other European state.

Source

• New York Post
• Image: BBC

Justice Minister Costas Tsiaras said Tuesday that the proposal has been removed from draft legislation that's being debated in Parliament. It would have made blasphemy punishable by up to two years in prison.

The proposal had been widely criticized. Continue reading

The agreement aimed to stem the flow of migrants and refugees seeking protection in Europe.

Caritas says the agreement has left thousands of vulnerable people stranded in degrading conditions in Greece.

Others are being forced to take dangerous alternative routes as they seek EU protection.

The agreement is financially beneficial to Turkey.

Caritas says Ankara agreed to stop asylum seekers from crossing by sea to the Greek islands in return for three billion euros in aid.

This money was to deal with the three million Syrian refugees who are living in Turkey.

Caritas says the aim was to return Syrian refugees who had reached the Greek islands to Turkey.

Syrian asylum seekers in Turkey were to be resettled in the EU.

"Today, thousands find themselves in a limbo," Leïla Bodeux of Caritas says.

The agreement "basically tries to fast-track returns of migrants from Europe to Turkey".

At the same time, the situation for refugees and migrants who have reached Greece is "dire and horrendous" she says.

Health is poor, fatal tent fires have occurred when people have been trying to keep warm and people are anxious.

Women and children are particularly vulnerable, she says.

Source

• Vatican Radio
• Image: NBC News

Three refugee families, including six children, boarded the Pope's plane for Rome at the end of his short visit on April 16.

A Vatican spokesman said: "The Pope has desired to make a gesture of welcome regarding refugees."

The three Muslim families had arrived on Lesbos before the new European Union deal with Turkey was implemented on March 20.

It is understood that paperwork for the 12 people to go to Rome was arranged in advance.

On his flight back from Lesbos, the Pope said the decision to bring the families to Rome was the fruit of an inspiration one of his collaborators had a week ago.

Two Christian families originally had been on the Vatican's list, too, he said, but their papers were not ready in time.

Two of the families which went to Rome are from Damascus, while the third is from the ISIS stronghold of Deir el-Zour in the north of the country.

Their homes had been bombed.

The Vatican will take responsibility for supporting the families.

But the Catholic Sant'Egidio community will take care of getting them settled initially.

On Lesbos, the Pope urged the European Union to change its policy towards the migrants.

He said: '"We hope that the world will heed these scenes of tragic and indeed desperate need, and respond in a way worthy of our common humanity."

While on Lesbos, Pope Francis blasted people smugglers and arms traffickers whom he blamed for worsening the current refugee crisis in Europe.

The Pontiff was greeted at the camp by a large group of children, some of whom arrived in Greece without their parents.

Addressing the refugees, he said: "You are not alone. Do not lose hope."

Children offered Francis drawings and the Pope praised one little girl for her artwork, saying "Bravo. Bravo."

Then as he handed it off to his staff he stressed: "Don't fold it. I want it on my desk."

Pope Francis was accompanied on his visit by Patriarch Bartholomew I and Archbishop of Athens Ieronymos II.

Sources

• Daily Mail
• The Guardian
• Aleteia
• Catholic Herald
• Full text of Pope's interview on flight from Lesbos
• Image: ABC

On a plane on his return to Europe from a three-nation South American visit, Pope Francis was asked by a reporter why he had hardly ever spoken about the problems of the "working, tax-paying" middle class.

Francis offered a rare papal mea culpa, thanking the reporter for his "good correction".

"You're right. It's an error of mine not to think about this," he said.

"The world is polarised. The middle class becomes smaller. The polarisation between the rich and poor is big. This is true. And, perhaps this has led me to not take account of this (the problems of the middle class)," he said.

Francis said he spoke about the poor often because they were so numerous.

But he noted that ordinary working people had "great value".

"I think you're telling me about something I need to do. I need to do delve further into this . . . ," he said

The Pope is due to visit Cuba and the United States in September.

On the papal plane, he said he was willing to have a dialogue with Americans who have seen his criticism of the global economic system and capitalism as an attack on their way of life.

Asked about the Greek crisis, he said "it would be too simple to say that the fault is only on one side".

"I hope that they find a way to resolve the Greek problem and also a way to have oversight so that the same problem will not fall on other countries.

"This will help us move forward because this path of loans and debts, in the end, it never ends."

Sources

• Reuters
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Vatican Radio

The country that is the cradle of democracy has decided to ask the people if the financial markets have the right to rule over them.

Predictably the response has been a mixture of fury and disbelief. 'You are asking the people what they think? We tell you what to think' is the implicit message.

The great absurdity of modern geo-economics is that the world of money, which is just a human construct, is being treated like a natural force that must be obeyed, much as we have to respect the law of gravity.

One might call it the cart-before-the-horse syndrome. Money is supposed to serve us, but increasingly we are becoming servants to those who run it.

Few are being asked to be more servile than the Greeks. When the IMF came in with what is amusingly referred to as its austerity 'plan', the Greek economy was expected to grow at over 2 per cent, unemployment was below 9 per cent and the debt was about 120 per cent of GDP.

By 2014, after the 'plan' had taken effect, the country's economy had shrunk by a quarter, unemployment was over 25 per cent, youth unemployment was over 50 per cent and the debt had risen to over 170 per cent of GDP.

The IMF's abject failure to provide a sound strategy was hardly a surprise. IMF prescriptions have a long history of failing, and countries that ignore them are often the ones that do surprisingly well.

One especially prominent example was the reaction of Malaysian prime Mahathir during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998. He was roundly criticised for ignoring the IMF prescriptions, instead fixing the currency and imposing capital controls.

Malaysia performed best during the crisis and it was later hailed as a master stroke. It is almost a case of the best strategy is to ask the IMF what to do, then do the opposite. Continue reading

• David James is a business journalist with a PhD in English literature. He edits Personal Super Investor.

They know they are putting their lives at risk. Nevertheless, many people board ramshackle watercraft and set sail from the coast of Africa in the hope of a better life in Europe.

While a few years ago it was predominately North African migrants coming to Italy in search of work, today it is often refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia who are fleeing chaos and violence in their countries. The number of asylum applications in Europe has sharply increased in the past six years.

Refugees are "particularly vulnerable people," warned German President Joachim Gauck after hundreds of people drowned off the coast of Lampedusa on Thursday. "Protecting lives and granting refugees the chance to be heard is at the foundation of our legal and moral codes," he concluded. On Tuesday, the EU interior ministers gathered in Luxembourg to discuss the consequences of the accident, which resulted in around 300 deaths. But despite heavy criticism, they couldn't manage to come to a decision about comprehensive change to European asylum policy.

The expectations of refugees who come to Europe often go unfulfilled. Many must struggle through long asylum application processes or fight against ingrained local prejudice. In some countries, they endure appalling living conditions in refugee camps; in others, they end up on the streets.

The correspondents of SPIEGEL ONLINE report on the situation in various European countries.

ITALY

By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp

The Lampedusa disaster has shaken the world — especially Italy. The populace watches the images on television with horror, the body bags lined up across the beach. How can this be? "A disgrace," says Pope Francis. "Yes," agree many, "a disgrace." There is talk of solidarity. Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta awarded posthumous Italian citizenship to the deceased. Continue reading

Sources

• Spiegel Online
• Image: euobserver.com

I learned a hard and hasty lesson when I came to Greece to live, as beggars were everywhere. They still are, and in endless variety: the aged, especially widows, mothers with babies, amputees, the deaf and dumb, people who have been horribly burned or crippled, gypsies.

Continue reading Gillian Bouras' article 'Confronting the beggar dilemma' in Eureka Street

Image: Wateatanga
Gillian Bouras is an Australian writer who has been based in Greece for 30 years. She has had nine books published. Her latest, Seeing and Believing, is appearing in instalments on her website.