The operation didn't help

Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece, who died of cancer on Monday, will be buried with state honors, Greek state television reported.

The body of the hierarch is displayed for farewell for three days in the Cathedral of Athens. The day of the archbishop's funeral has been declared a holiday in Greece, government offices and schools will be closed, and national flags will be lowered throughout the country.

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos (Paraskevaidis) was born in 1939 in Xanthi (Greece), received a legal, philological and theological education. Author of many books of a scientific, theological and moralizing nature. Since 1998 - Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church. He has always had an independent position in relations with the Greek state, in particular he opposed the removal of the “Religion” column from identity cards. He criticized globalization and steps to separate the school from the church, however, he always remained an “enlightened” conservative and advocated for maximum information openness in church affairs.

When a scandal erupted in the Greek Church at the beginning of 2005 - several hierarchs were accused of corruption and even outright theft - Christodoulus proposed a number of measures to improve the situation: the presence of a lawyer in trials related to the moral sins of clergy, the introduction of a minimum 35-year age for occupation of high church positions, ensuring transparency in the sources of income of clergy, a ban on hierarchs accepting “gifts” from believers, the creation of church councils in all metropolises with the participation of secular persons to manage the finances and property of the Church.

Last year, Christodoulus was diagnosed with cancer. In October, he underwent a liver transplant in the United States. However, there was no improvement in health after the operation due to the spread of metastases, after which the archbishop refused new surgical interventions. On October 27, Christodoulos returned to Greece and spent the last three months of his life at his home near Athens, where he died on Monday January 28 at the age of 69.