Greek authorities opened criminal proceedings against two clergymen for conducting services in churches on Palm Sunday, despite the restrictive measures in force due to the coronavirus infection COVID-19.
It is reported by Iefimerida.
It is specified that the services were held contrary to the ban on the participation of believers in liturgies, introduced by both the state and the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church (EOC) in order to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Claims for the consideration of cases in courts under an urgent procedure were filed by the prosecutor of Kerkyra Dionisios Lambridis and the head of the Athenian prosecutor’s office Vangelis Ioannidis.
According to the publication, in the first case, the priest communed with the police who came in the presence of the police and at the same time everything that happened was filmed by television. In the second case, the clergyman offered people holy communion through the back door of the church and this was photographed by the believers themselves.
Earlier, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill suggested looking at the coronavirus infection COVID-19 as God’s mercy.