Some priests on the island of Crete refuse to give the Holy Communion to vaccinated citizens. And this at the time when the country is trying to speed up the vaccinations program in order to create a protection shield against the Delta Variant of Covid-19.
The denouncement came by Professor of Pulmonology at the University of Crete Nikos Tzanakis.
He told Radio Crete, that he has received complaints by citizens that clergymen threaten them that if they are vaccinated against the coronavirus, they will refuse to give them the Holy Communion and receive their Confession.
At the same radio program, the president of the Union of Clergy Associations of the Church of Crete, priest Zacharias Adamakis, stated that the vast majority of the clergy in Crete are in favor of vaccination.
Zacharakis described the deniers as “isolated cases” that in no way represent the priests on the island.
“We want to go out to the pulpit, and see all the faithful, there, healthy,” he said, adding that the Church of Crete was in favor of vaccinations against the coronavirus from the very first moment.
Based on social media posts and statements on mainstream media, obscurantists believed that “the vaccination allows the Anti-Christ to enter one’s body.”
Last week, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis asked for the help of the Church to boost the vaccination roll out, a decision by the Holy Synod is due.
Today, Thursday, the Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias and the country’s top epidemiologist Sotiris Tsiordas will meet with the country’s top clergy to discuss the vaccinations issue.
Interior Minister Makis Voridis said on Wednesday that the Church should restrict priests who use their position to promote their anti-vaccination views. .
“The position of the Church at the level of the Holy Synod must be clear and encourage vaccinations,” the minister said.
More information on coronavirus in Greece and vaccination program here.
That is ridiculous, if they should be refusing communion to anyone it should be those who are not vacinated.
Well, some clergymen do know the Scriptures and are not afraid to remember them to the public, even under the threat of losing their job. There is no “obscurantism” in Christianity. Evidently, it’s in total opposition to the worldviews. Contrary to the growing need for centralization and total control, everyone is free to believe what they want, as everyone was born free to make their own choices concerning their own lives and the lives of their children.
I am not a priest but I did study the scriptures many years ago. If my recollection is correct Jesus spent part of his ministry healing the sick? When he said “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” I don’t remember any caveats about “As long as they are not vaccinated. I don’t recollect any mention of him trying to kill his flock?
In the Islamic Golden Age the general philosophy was that God created the Earth and everything in it so it was mankind’s sacred duty to attempt to understand everything God had created. That philosophy is still followed by the scientists who developed the various vaccines. It would appear that the only thing these priests study is advanced bigotry.
nice storry ..but exactly not true.. our world is non deterministic… if your changing the basic “programm”, you are changing god’s creation. This Virus changed the world irreversible. And the same is true for the Vaccine. We will all have to pay for this. Probabely not this time. But the next Pandemic is awaiting us… there are many more BSL4 Laboratories out there. And we have now astablished a quick and dirty solution for the next pandemic. Forget about religion and belief the to the “holy national ethic comitee”! Let the jab be the new babtism! Congratulation!