Mayor of Corfu, Meropi Ydraiou apologized on Monday for her church going a day earlier although she claimed at the same time that she did not attend the religious service but the procession of Agios Spyridion inside the Church. Playing with words and semantics, she said that she stayed in the church only for a few minutes as a representative of the local authorities and while keeping the safety distance.
Ydraiou is one of the locals against whom the prosecutor of the island filed charges for violating the lockdown laws. Others are the Bishop of Corfu, Nektarios, the chairman of the municipality council and all those, some 20-25 people, who attended the service on Sunday and even shared the Holy Communion, as corfupress reported.
The mayor of Corfu came under fire for her church going on Sunday, especially following her TV spot urging citizens to stay at home.
Video: Spot Stay At Home on March 30
The Bishop of Corfu went to the local prosecutor short before 1 o’ clock Monday noon. He did not make any statements, but his lawyer said that the charges are on misdemeanor. The Bishops’ trial is set for May 25.
Meanwhile, the priest of Agios Nikolaos church in Koukaki who shared the Holy Communion despite the ban remains at large. This did not hinder Papa-Giorgis to post on social media account that “Closing the churches is like closing the hospitals.”
Read also: Prosecutor files against priests in Athens and Corfu for breaking the lockdown restrictions.
PS I really do not get it. Does some clergy really believe that they are above the civil laws? How “christian” is it to expose people at risk, claiming unreasonable “reasons” of faith? Are they so arrogant to think that millions of Greeks stay at home, deprived of work and income because they have nothing better to do? Do they believe that the whole country has closed down and has been paralyzed for a month, because …? Do they really think that the 99 dead patients in Greece and the 20,000 dead in neighboring Italy, to which Corfu has close links, are some kind of joke?
As I have seen from my window today that groups of young people are all out together,close together walking down the road,my husband saw many groups standing around the entrance to the park in Aigaleo,and theres me thinking how well the Greeks were abiding by the social distancing rules when in fact it was just the cold rainy weather keeping them in,the sunshine makes them forget or not give one damn about Covid 19 and all the horrors that go with it.I pray that Greece will not become Italy,Spain or the UK but I cant see how it cannot be so, now that people are coming out,too close too soon and I fear the worst.
Religion has, over centuries, been the cause of many wars and millions of deaths and yet us humans have still not learnt from our mistakes.
All these people involved in this current ‘breaking of the law’ should be severely punished and where applicable, removed from public office.