Nearly a year after the Church of Greece launched its petition for a referendum on whether state identity cards should mention their bearers' religious beliefs, Archbishop Christodoulos yesterday said just over three million people had "bravely" backed the drive and called on the government to respond accordingly.
"The people of God have spoken in a clear-headed and decisive manner, without any desire to enter a confrontation with the government," Christodoulos said in a public statement, in which he set the number of signatures at 3,008,901 - 1,405 more than the number of votes the ruling socialists received in last year's election, as senior Church officials hastened to point out.
"We beg the government to hold a free and peaceful plebiscite that will openly express the overall will of the people without subterfuges and alibis, devoutly implementing the paramount constitutional dictate of popular sovereignty," the archbishop added.
Christodoulos said the six-month petition drive had been the Church's only defense against the government's "inexplicable, untimely and erroneous" decision last year to remove the faith slot from new-issue ID cards to protect citizens' privacy, adding that the Church "knows how to forgive, to be silent, to be humiliated and to endure."
But the government insisted that the number of signatures, while large, was beside the point.
"The number of signatures appended to the petition does not concern us and does not worry us," government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said. "It is a matter that will have no effect on our policy... Citizens' rights cannot subscribe to the rules of majority and minority."
"The overwhelming majority of a country's citizens cannot take decisions that would go against the rights of even one citizen," he added.
And he said the government had not been surprised at the number of signatures, "for the very simple reason that the number of people who belong to the Orthodox Church in Greece is much bigger."
Reppas reserved his strongest language for conservative New Democracy, which he accused of hypocrisy and populism.
"The main opposition party's stance is notable," he said. "It is almost a sermon against legality. New Democracy insists on approaching the issue based on the optional listing of religious belief on citizens' state identity cards, when the country's supreme administrative court, the Council of State, has issued a (prohibitive) decision on the matter."
"In a hypocritical and populist manner, New Democracy makes no reference to the matter of the referendum despite the fact that its leadership has signed the petition."
ND spokesman Thodoris Roussopoulos responded by accusing the government of "setting false dilemmas and preaching discord."
With the exception of its ultra-conservative MP - and former public order minister - Stelios Papathemelis, who said the government should only ignore the petition "if it has decided to commit suicide in the next election," ruling PASOK's top officials sided against the Church.
Interior Minister Vasso Papandreou said ID cards "are administrative documents that concern the state alone."
The Greek Communist Party (KKE) said there would have been no problem had PASOK and ND revised the constitution to clearly differentiate between Church and State, and accused the conservatives of "exploiting the people's religious beliefs."
And the Left Coalition accused Church officials of ingratitude "for showing no appreciation for the fact that the Greek State is most generous and caring toward the Church."
Today, Christodoulos will visit President Costis Stephanopoulos, and will try to enlist his support.