Mount Athos Bans Alexis Tsipras Entry Because He Is an Atheist

The administration of Mount Athos refused to officially receive the Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, who was supposed to meet with the leadership of Mount Athos, visit monasteries, and meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Wednesday, the conservative Athenian newspaper Kathimerini reported today, reports the Patria agency.

- The Holy Community - the supreme governing body of Mount Athos, decided at a heated meeting on Monday not to receive Tsipras on an official visit, nor to grant him the protocol honors due to a prime minister, but rather informed him that he could only visit Athos as a "private individual", as an ordinary pilgrim - writes Kathimerini.

A priest from Mount Athos stated that they cannot receive a prime minister who has publicly declared himself an atheist and who enacts laws and pursues policies that affect Orthodoxy.

More than three years ago, in August 2014, Tsipras was warmly welcomed on Mount Athos, then as the leader of the opposition, and without special honors, and he even asked for and received the monks' blessing.

- Much has changed since then. Tsipras's government has opened fronts with the church, which disliked him from the very beginning of his term because both the prime minister and the MPs of his SYRIZA coalition refused to swear on the Gospel and before God, which is the customary form in Greece - writes the Athenian newspaper.

Tsipras's MPs exempted Mount Athos from property taxes outside of Athos, but this did not appease all the clergy.

- The government clearly knew what the decision of the Mount Athos Administration would be, and a few hours before its decision, it informally informed the media that Tsipras's visit was "postponed due to the workload" - writes the newspaper.

However, a church portal soon published that the prime minister's visit was canceled by Mount Athos itself, and that it did not happen due to his busy schedule, as was claimed.

In addition, black flags and banners against the Antichrist were hung in one monastery on Mount Athos - the Monastery of Dohiariou - on the occasion of Tsipras's visit.

Church sources from the Greek newspaper commented that these are "unprecedented things for Mount Athos", without precedent in its history, and that banning a prime minister from entering a part of Greek territory, Mount Athos, is not only incomprehensible and legally unsustainable, but also represents a sacred indecency regardless of political views.

Kathimerini states that among the representatives of the monasteries that opposed Tsipras's visit were fifteen out of the total twenty on Mount Athos, including three monasteries with monks of Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian origin.

- More calm and careful observers of the situation on Mount Athos believe that the stance of the 'Holy Community' is a consequence of the atmosphere of conservatism, sometimes with characteristics of Orthodox fundamentalism, which is rapidly gaining ground on Mount Athos - concludes the newspaper.