Of Gifts Antoniou

Is it time for the effort to cooperate between the State and the Church to exploit ecclesiastical property? Failures of the past make those directly involved holding a small basket, despite the formulation of good intentions. Yesterday’s meeting of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with Archbishop Hieronymus again brought the matter to the forefront. Low tones, however, especially on the part of the government, show that neither is it easy nor simple.

At this juncture there are the areas where synergies could be implemented: the distribution of the Church’s real estate and installations for housing programs and the joint utilization of the Church’s assets. As for the first, the debate that was first held at the Prime Minister’s meeting with Mr Hieronymos in late 2023 concerns the utilization of immovable property at the disposal of the Church to be responsible for the state in student halls and to allocate themselves and to allocate themselves. With social – income criteria to students and the construction of real estate in ecclesiastical land in order to give apartments to new couples in the context of housing crisis programs.

Concerning the joint utilization of the Church’s assets, prehistory includes several failed efforts, and it is indicative that since 2009 there are discussions with successive governments – George Papandreou, Antonis Samaras, Alexis Tsipras – sometimes at an advanced stage reached implementation. The presentation should also be added in September 2022, in the presence of Mr. Mitsotakis, the very ambitious venture “Green Schisto”, which had been viewed as a “small Greek” and the work that would change the data and the image of western Attica. The project concerned an agreement between the Church and the HRIP for the exploitation of an area of ​​3,000 acres of the Church in Schisto, where, inter alia, the construction of container station, conference centers, commercial uses, hotels, etc. was foreseen. and in August 2023 the dissolution of Schisto SA was announced.

These are the facts that make both sides talk about the new round of discussions about a very early stage process. According to sources at the Maximus Grand, work groups will be set up to record the real estate and land for which they are mentioned, to find the situation in which they are, if they are residential, their legal status, if they are pending disputes or are claimed And the ownership status is not clear. Reflection on whether and whether they are mature to proceed with specific actions now in ecclesiastical circles, which for their part are expressing doubts about the time required to reach the implementation of specific common initiatives. It should be noted that it was the reaction of the hierarchy that stopped before its completion the agreement that had discussed the exploitation of ecclesiastical property and the payroll of the priests by the Archbishop with then Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in 2018.

On the part of the Church remains, of course, the demand for the taxation of taxation for its property and proposals for utilization is also aimed at it. At the same time, the claims against the State for a number of real estate and land remain active.

As ecclesiastical factor points out, yesterday’s meeting has both sides to win, at least at the level of messages and communication. The Archbishop’s visit to the Maximus Mansion seals that the relations between the two sides, tested by the legislation of the gypsy pairs, have been fully restored. The prime minister’s assurance that the forthcoming constitutional review will not be a question of state and church separation shows that there is no disposition for a possible new front.