By Emilios Polygenis
The Holy Community of Mount Athos has sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, George Katrougalos, with which it expressed its strong protest regarding the visit of an Hierarch of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine.
Specifically, the Holy Community communicates to the Minister of Foreign Affairs a Romfea.gr article, which concerned a visit by Metropolitan Mikhail of Lutsk and Volyn to Mount Athos.
The Holy Community describes the action of the Metropolitan and his escort as provocative, for they were holding Ukrainian flags while they chanted the National Anthem of Ukraine.
“The action of this Metropolitan, following his visit to the Holy Epistasis, constitutes a violation of Article 184 of the Charter of Mount Athos, on the basis of which ‘any moral, religious, ecclesiastical, social, nationalist and any other kind of proselytizing and propagandistic action in Mount Athos’ is absolutely forbidden and punished with the expulsion penalty”, as the Holy Community of Mount Athos states in its letter.
Also, the Athonites emphasize: “This action is incompatible with the hesychastic, spiritual and sacred character of our Holy Land and its millennial tradition, it creates a dangerous precedent for the repetition of similar actions on either side and for nationalist conflicts in it, and is totally contrary to the Charter of the Mount Athos.”
Finally, the Holy Community asks the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs to take the necessary measures to prevent such acts in the future, so that the character of the Holy Mountain may remain untouched.
