By updating Law 536 of 1945, a solution is given to the problem of thousands of clerics who, while they were hired by the state with the respective gazettes, serve and are paid normally, but their organizational position was literally “up in the air”
New framework streamlining the regime under which priests are recruited and perform their duties promotes Ministry of Education with the bill submitted to Parliament. The goal is also to update laws that were a significant burden on Church-State relations and all this without burdening the state budget by a single euro, while at the same time putting an end to the idiosyncratic legal “hostage” of thousands of clergy.
By updating Law 536 of 1945 a solution is given to the problem of thousands of clerics who, while they were hired by the state with the respective gazettes, serve and are paid normally but their organizational position was literally “up in the air”. Now with the new law on already existing 6,000 positions which was predicted by Act of 1945 another 2,311 permanent organic positions are added, i.e. the actual number of clergy currently serving in the Church of Greece, while for the Church of Crete 955 organic positions for the corresponding clergy currently serving there.
This does not mean that there will be 2,311 and 955 new clerical recruitments, since these already exist, serve and are paid by the state and of course there will not be any change in their salary or insurance status.
The distribution of organic positions in the Metropolises of the district will do the Holy Synod and then the relevant presidential decrees will be issued. While it is important to mention that in order to be sure that the real needs of each local Church are adequately covered, the organic positions will not be “personal” but institutional. That is, the organic positions will belong to the Metropolises and not to the persons.
If a cleric wants to leave from one Metropolis to serve in another, he will be able to do this as long as the Metropolis of his destination has a corresponding empty organizational position, since when leaving he will not be able to take his organic position “with him” by altering the organizational chart of each Metropolis. In the event that some Metropolitans wish to hire additional clergy from those provided for in the organic positions that will correspond to their provinces, they will be able to do so by privately hiring these clergy in their Metropolis. The clergy, that is, they will serve where they wish, but since there is no corresponding organic position, they will be paid directly by the Metropolis without this affecting the final budget of the state.
With another provision, the possibility is given to the Church to ordain new bishops without burdening the state budget. Until today, the bishops who could be ordained were those provided by the Charter and the related decisions. These were the assistant bishops of the Archdiocese of Athens and the holders of special positions in the services of the First Synod, such as the current general director of the Apostolic Ministry, the Chief Secretary of the First Synod, etc.
Now the I. Synod it will be able to elect as many bishops as it deems necessary for its needs, but since the position for which they will be elected is not one of the prescribed ones, then no change will be made in their salary situation.
The only difference provided by the pending law it is in cases of establishment of new Metropolises. Then the position of a new Metropolitan will normally be recommended only, since it is assumed that in the area that will be detached in order to create the new Metropolis there will be de facto structures and personnel.
With the medical plan from the moment it is exercised prosecution against a cleric for a criminal act or for other serious acts such as theft, embezzlement, fraud, extortion, forgery, bribery, infidelity, any crime against sexual freedom or crime of financial exploitation of sexual life, domestic violence and others, his salary will be automatically reduced to 50% until the his case to be finalized. In the event that he is found guilty payroll is suspended fully and the organic position is vacated, while in the event that he is acquitted, all the money withheld from him will be returned with interest.
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