Last week, Greece's pro-European Socialist government announced that a person's religion would not be included on new ID cards expected to replace the outdated handwritten cards now issued by the police. That has elicited protests from the powerful Greek Orthodox Church, which wants the government to hold a referendum on whether to scrap the information or to keep it optional.
Any violent change wounds our pride and individuality.
The archbishop has vowed to oppose the measure but has called on the faithful to refrain from violence. At today's rally, the first street protest since the dispute erupted, religious leaders delivered fiery speeches to a crowd filled with nuns, priests in flowing black robes and old women clutching crucifixes and icons. The police said that about 3,000 protesters marched to the Greek Parliament, where they handed in a protest letter. A similar dispute in the 1980's over a proposal to tax church property ended with the government hastily retreating after the church mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to march through the streets of Athens in protest. The government had tried to avoid an open confrontation with the church, saying it would start discussions.