Between hope and fear

SIR Europe interviewed Msgr. Dimitrios Salachas, Apostolic Exarch of the Byzantine rite Catholics, on the upsetting economic and social situation afflicting Greece, which is causing deep concern across the EU . Msgr. Salachas, the financial crisis also involves Greece, which is in a state of economic recession coupled by huge debts. The pressures of the Troika’s technical experts from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are growing stronger. Planned measures include employment cuts for civil servants, abolition of minimum wages and new taxes. These drastic measures are deemed necessary to obtain a new 8 billion euro loan from the EU to cover the debts. How is the population – youths and families in particular – experiencing these days of uncertainty? “The image of the financial crisis as it is described in the question is accurate and objective. Our politicians don’t tell the population all the truth on the situation. On the one side they assure: ‘The money is there’, while they also claim that the country is ‘bogged down in debt’. In fact, it’s the first time in Greece’s modern history that its population, notably families and youths heavily hit by the effects of the crisis, are living days of anguish and uncertainty. Papandreu’s government obtained the troika’s green light to the plan that envisages – in addition to a 20% cut in public sector wages by 2015 – the suspension of thirty thousand civil servants, critical to the approval of the sixth batch of Greece’s bailout amounting to eight billion euro to pay the salaries, as Greece has only enough funds to last until mid-October. After the approval by the Council of Ministers, the measures will be debated in parliament for the final endorsement. The package of fiscal measures provides for an ‘employment reserve fund’ by end-2011 for 30 thousand public sector employees, with a 40% salary cut, and they would be laid off after a year if they cannot be reallocated”. The basic question is: how did Greece reach this point of “controlled bankruptcy”? Why is the European troika in Greece? “The answer offered by the man on the street is unquestionable: political parties and governments’ corruption in handling public funds, the squandering of public resources in the running of national bodies, the unreasonable banking system attuned to mere profit-making mechanisms, capital export and Greek entrepreneurs’ decision to invest abroad, the loud economic scandals whose identified culprits remained unpunished, uncontrolled tax evasion by major businesses and firms…The serious economic crisis that we’re facing is the result of a more serious one involving the moral values of the political class. This has contributed to decreased transparency and productivity, which caused unrestrained increases in the cost of living. The public opinion believes that the State has lost credibility. The government is marked by disorientation, incapacity and amateurism, while party members sitting in Parliament seek to fulfil trade-unionist claims in the fear of loosing constituency votes”. Once more, are the rich growing richer and the poor growing poorer? “The few privileged ones grow rich via illegal means while the poor are nearing a state of utmost poverty. The middle class, whose lifestyle used to be higher than they could comfortably afford, have been spending two times more than what they had by taking bank loans, and are now crushed by debts. They are the victims of banks’ exploitation. The two government majority parties that alternately took the lead of the country over the past fifty years, appointed thousands of supporters as -unneeded – public officers in order to gain votes, thus further expanding the national deficit. Today the population – namely, the poorer brackets, the youth and the families in particular, seriously hit by the effects of the crisis – are nearing a state of desperation. The market is weaker; youth unemployment rates are tragically high, while we witness salary cuts and surging taxes on a wide range of items such as property, wages and income. This is reason for grave uncertainty and concern, justified rage, mounting crimes, fear at home and in the streets. The State is increasingly unable to protect its citizens from criminality”. Strikes, protests and the occupation of ministries occur on a daily basis and place the country in a deadlock. How can the State and its citizens join their efforts to overcome the crisis? Is there room for cooperation? “I’m not an expert in economy so I don’t have ready-made solutions to the crisis. However, common sense leads me to draw the conclusions from obvious facts: namely, strikes, street riots and protests against the troika, the occupation of ministries blocking the country – however legitimately expressing popular distress – now are useless. We have to be realistic. Greece has to find the money to cover the debt caused by loans from Europe. Debts inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known collectively as the troika, aren’t touched by social unrests. They relentlessly pressure the government to adopt new taxes. The drastic measures are deemed necessary for the disbursement of the six 8 billion euro bailout tranche. Since the outbreak of the crisis the government’s behaviour has been marked by weakness, by lack of courage, by the lack of coordination amongst the ministers, by inconsistency and instability in decision-making processes, by the lack of financial experts. It is necessary to create a permanent groups of experts, at national and international level, tasked with examining all possible scenarios and with developing solutions, instead of amateurs selected on the basis of their political sympathies with government parties. The country’s two majority parties refuse to cooperate to exit the crisis, calculating the costs they would pay if early elections were to take place. All of this is caused by a recession which is much worse than expected, a situation that is worsened by the lack of structural reforms”. Which other elements should be the object of further reflection?“The serious financial crisis, involving also the international realm, makes it much more difficult for Greece to collect the funds needed to meet the targets. However, it should be said that the ongoing risk of social unrests has evidently prevented the government from adopting more painful reforms. While at social level, workers in different sectors are on strike, protesting staff and salary cuts. Citizens are requested to change their mentality and their lifestyles, they are invited to limit unnecessary expenses, to undertake austerity as a way of living, in short: they are called to combat consumerism. Cooperating with the State means primarily to acknowledge the fact that the country is experiencing a devastating economic crisis that demands drastic measures and sacrifices. Going out of the euro as single currency and returning to the Greek Drachma currency – as some suggest – means passing from ‘controlled bankruptcy’ to ‘total bankruptcy'”. In the ongoing crisis afflicting the country the Christian churches are actively seeking to provide concrete assistance to the poorest population brackets also with a contribution in terms of thought and reflection? “The drastic tax increases to counter the debt crisis involves all the Churches with no distinction, including the Catholic Church. However, while the Orthodox Church is a juridical body that falls within national legislation, whose clerical and lay employees have the same wages of civil servants, the Catholic Church and her institutions fall under private law regulations and they are also self-financed. Also the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchates (the Ecumenical Patriarchate, of Alexandria, Jerusalem, etc.) receive funding from the State of Greece. Orthodox bishops and priests receive a salary just like all other public officers. They are entitled to social security and pension fund as well public health services. On the Orthodox part dynamic opposition is voiced along with claims of solidarity with the popular protests. The Holy Synod of the Orthodox hierarchy is likely to meet the Troika to discuss the economic situation of the Orthodox Church and her social charity works. Before the government’s intention to enforce measures that would compel the Church to pay a salary to her priests, the Orthodox hierarchy complains that clerics’ remuneration is the State’s responsibility according to a moral and juridical convention stipulated in the past between the Church and the State. In the meantime, politicians are calling for Church-State separation. The Orthodox Church, while reaffirming and promoting her social role in favour of the population, doesn’t demand Church-State separation for historical reasons, but she would have to be subjected to it if it were imposed by the State. As regards the Catholic Church, the State offers financial aid and imposes the same drastic taxes on Catholic Church revenue, which is needed for the fulfilment of her pastoral and supportive mission across society. In the colloquiums with the government the Greek Bishops’ Conference reaffirmed that it rejects privileged treatment, underlining the need for understanding and support of its pastoral commitment for the faithful, along with the recognition of its charitable and educational commitment for the population as a whole, regardless of the citizens’ religion, ethnical background and language”.What’s the situation in your diocese?“As regards my diocese, the Apostolic Exarchate of Byzantine rite, all of its temporalities and property are the result of donations and free offerings by the faithful, which mostly consists of apartments and rented shops, as well as non-lucrative estate. The apartments yield rents, while for the rest of the property we are trying to get revenue from some of the estate, but today it’s not easy. Earnings from the rental of Church property has fallen by 50% due to the new taxes adopted by the government: while for the year 2010 taxes paid by the Exarchate amounted to 50 000 €, taxes for the year 2011 amount to 240 000 €. Some of the tenants have left their apartments and the rented shops, while others are asking to pay half the rent. Income from property covers the Church’s self-sustenance, social security, clergy health services, charities and educational activities, along with assistance to immigrants and to Catholic refugees from Eastern countries entrusted to the pastoral care of the Exarchate. Other dioceses and Catholic institutions in Greece are in the same situation”. Europeans are trying to avoid Greece’s default at all costs, considered as a time bomb. The Country’s collapse risks triggering chain reactions across Europe, with repercussions on the banking sector – the banks own a part of the Greek debt – on the future of the single currency, and thereon a new global economic crisis. Are we facing the collapse of a soul-less Europe, victim of profit and money-making? “Indeed, the Greek case is a concern for the entire world, notably for Europeans. I am not an expert in economy nor in European politics, thus I don’t have the tools to establish if the measures adopted by Europeans to avoid a Greece’s default are appropriate. Moreover, the failure of European economy is a plausible scenario. That’s why I agree with the idea that we’re facing a soul-less Europe, victim of profit and money-making processes. It’s true also for Greece, which has reached this tragic situation precisely because of prevailing illegal profits and under-the-table earnings. Those who pay are often those who have nothing and those who do have the means avoid paying by resorting to tax fraud and exploitation of the poor”. What lesson can be drawn by Greece and by Europe from this time of global crisis? Is a new Europe possible? “There can be no new Europe without awe of God and the respect of moral laws. To build a new Europe where God is marginalized, a market-based Europe that reposes on economic power is a utopia. The lesson that Greece, and Europe, can draw from this time of global crisis consists in the global reminder that the dignity of the human person is paramount. The human person is not a number in an anonymous mass of people, it isn’t a factor nor an economic coefficient waiting to be exploited. The human person, created by God in His image and likeness, possesses a sacred value. There are millions of poor and needy people. There are poor people in the economic realm who are hungry, homeless or sick, lacking the means to lead a dignified life. There are poor people in the social sphere: marginalized for countless reasons, migrants, illiterate people. There are those who are poor at physical and moral level: the disabled, the alcoholics, drug-addicts, prostitutes and mentally deranged people. There are the love-less ones such as disdained old people, abandoned children, detainees, destroyed families. There are those lacking true values, namely the slaves of pleasure, money and power. The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund aren’t the ones that will build a new Greece and a new Europe. A new Greece will be built when everyone, leaders and citizens alike, all men of good will, will undertake the fight against corruption and amorality. This task must primarily be fulfilled by lay Christians for their own vocation, to seek the Kingdom of God by tackling earthly issues according to God’s will, being witnesses of Christ in their private lives, in the family, and in the political and social environments, thus making their witness visible to others, fighting for the establishment of fair laws and contributing to the sanctification of the world as a ferment that shines for faith, hope and charity”.