Assuming the role of the Greek nation's leader, the head of the country's Orthodox Church on Friday refused to back off from controversial anti-Turkish statements, in which he called Turks "barbarians" who should not be allowed to join the European Union.
Whoever has "duties of leading the nation" must give "a combative example as a person and as a Christian," private radio station Flash quoted Archbishop of Athens Christodoulos as saying in a sermon.
Referring to Athanassios Diakos, a national hero killed at the hands of Turkish Ottomans during Greece's independence struggle in 1821-1828, Christodoulos had said in a sermon Thursday "... they impaled him, those who want today to get into the European Union (...) The barbarians cannot become part of the Christian family because we can't live together."
"If such views prevailed in today's Europe, its people would continue to be engulfed in confrontations and dividing lines," Dimitrios Gerou, a government spokesman, said in the daily press briefing Friday.
However, the Greek government did not outright condemn Christodoulos' statements.
"These (Christodoulos') statements have a common denominator: phobia and the bigotry of a culture that does not tolerate difference and coexistence of cultures," said Nikos Voutsis, spokesman of the Left Coalition, Greece's reformed communist party.
Christodoulos is known for his ultra-conservative views and is widely seen as seeking to play a political role. Greece has scheduled general elections for early 2004. He is an ardent supporter of mentioning God and Christianity in the preamble of Europe's future constitution.
Commentators also interpreted Christodoulos' remarks as part of a campaign to gain popularity in his ongoing power struggle with Istanbul-based Orthodox Patriarch Vartholomeos, titular head of all Orthodox Churches.
The patriarch, obliged by Turkish law to carry a Turkish passport, has publicly supported Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
NATO partners Greece and Turkey have been separated by a long history of bloody conflicts.
Today they are at loggerheads over the divided island of Cyprus and sovereignty issues in the Aegean, the sea that separates them.