The art of being a minority

“The Catholic Church in Greece is not very different from the other European Churches that have to work in the midst of secularised societies, a prey to ethical relativism”, says the President of the Greek Bishops, Msgr. FRANCIS PAPAMANOLIS, in describing the situation of the Greek Catholic Church. It too is having to come to terms, in its life, with “a difficulty that at times is revealed as a source of enrichment”, namely the fact of “being a minority”. As is well known, Greece is a country with an Orthodox majority. There are only some 50,000 Greek Catholics (0.5% of the population). But in recent years their number has increased by 700%, boosting the figure to over 350,000, thanks to immigrants of Catholic faith. The majority of the Catholic population lives in Athens, one of the 11 Greek dioceses, comprising a total of 88 parishes. There are ten bishops assisted by 55 diocesan clergy, 41 religious clergy and 2 permanent deacons. There are c.160 men and women religious, and 122 catechists. The Greek Church runs a hospital, 5 clinics, a kindergarten and six reform schools. “This extraordinary increase of Catholics – explains the bishop – obliges us to change our pastoral ministry. We have counted faithful of 40 different nationalities attending Sunday mass in one parish. Greek Catholics have now become a minority of 18% within the Catholic Church in Greece”.What do you means by saying you have had to “change your pastoral ministry”?“Foreigners who arrive in Greece don’t find a church as in Italy, Spain or other countries of Catholic tradition, in which they can integrate themselves. Here they may have to live even hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest Catholic church or church community. The territory is an objective difficulty: for example in my diocese, Crete, there are only two priests and two Capuchin friars who have to minister to the 3,000 Catholics in the island. In another nation this perhaps would not represent a problem. But when these 3,000 Catholics are scattered all over the island, over a radius of at least 350 kilometres, then everything becomes more difficult. We have communities that have no church and not even a room in which to meet their bishop or priest. There is also the linguistic obstacle”.You mean, not everyone understands Greek?“Not just that. A Church, however small in number, still has to perform the same work as a larger one. One practical example: the translation of the liturgical books, encyclicals or other documents of the Magisterium or of the Pope. We do the translations ourselves and try to ensure they are as faithful as possible. We also have difficulty in finding competent personnel in interdiocesan tribunals. When we organize courses in permanent formation, retreats or conferences, we have to call in outside experts. For catechesis we also need to write texts and teaching aids, but whereas in other churches there are many competent persons to do so, it isn’t easy in Greece to find them even among the laity. To have priests who are able to relate to communities of immigrants we have appealed to the bishops’ conferences of origin, religious orders and congregations, with results that have not been wholly positive”. Isn’t this growth in Catholics also underlining the lack of priests and vocations?“We don’t have many priests. And the shortage is especially felt after this striking increase in the number of Catholics of non-Greek origin. The lack of vocations prevents us from tackling not only the pastoral problems of our immigrants, but also those of Greek Catholics. As I already said, the assistance of the churches of origin of these immigrant Catholics, though we bishops have requested it, is virtually non-existent. If a priest dies, we don’t know how to replace him. You must also bear in mind that we have many islands, often difficult to reach. We have to travel by boat, not by car, to reach them. There are also economic difficulties. If we want to increase our ecclesiastical personnel we must also be able to provide them with the necessary means of subsistence. We are a Church poor in resources”. How do you cope with your needs?“We have purchased properties for rental as a source of income. We don’t have other resources. Despite that, we are acting on various pastoral fronts such as that of the media. We have renewed our website, promoted a bulletin in every diocese and as the Bishops’ Conference publish a fortnightly magazine with a national distribution”.But what is the strength of the Greek Church?“First, our weakness itself. Second, in the ecumenical field, in terms of respect for the person and for life, the Greek Church can say and give a lot to Europe. We could also export our ability to be a minority. Our faithful have their children baptized; almost all get married in church; over three-quarters of children, and in some areas 100%, attend catechesis. We are used to live our minority situation with a certain humility that helps. To the difficulties I have already mentioned others should be added due to legal disabilities ( lack of definition of the juridical personality of the Catholic Church and its institutions ) and misunderstandings, or ignorance about Catholics, in public opinion. But all this only strengthens community among us Catholics and increases our love for the Church. Being a minority unites and reinforces us. When Catholics meet, it’s common to introduce someone by saying: ‘he’s one of us'”.