Archbishop Ieronymos has taken a stand regarding the reinstating of the penalties for malicious blasphemy and religious insult at the Penal Code. The Archbishop’s public intervention comes just a day after the Ministry of Justice announced that changes would be launched and the criminal hell for blasphemy and religious insults will be reinstated.
In particular, Archbishop Ieronymos said regarding the changes put forward by the Ministry of Justice that: “The reinstatement to the Penal Code of the provisions on the offenses of malicious blasphemy and religious insult is obviously not aimed at protecting God, the Divine, and any other religion, as these do not need any human protection. It aims, however, at preserving the religious sentiment of the faithful and the overriding interest, in particularly troubled times, of the social peace and social cohesion, goods that cannot be trampled on by arbitrary interpretations within the logic of freedom of speech, that includes insults, hatred and fanaticism. Above all, however, the whole issue is a matter of civilization, something that every human being can easily grasp as long as the veil of obsessions and nihilistic anchors is removed from them.”