Athens Guide Index   

Athens Practical Information

Religious Affiliations

Of all citizens of the Hellenic Republic 97,6% are Greek Orthodox, 1,3% Muslim, 0,4% Roman Catholic, 0,1% Protestant, 0,6% other, including Jews. The Greek Orthodox Church is autocephalous, with its own Charter but indissolubly united in doctrine with the Great Church of Constantinople, i.e. the Ecumenical Patriarchate. On the peninsula of Chalkidiki, located in southeastern Macedonia, is the famous Mount Athos, where a number of monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church form, as they have for centuries, an autonomous monastic community.

Unlike most democracies, in Greece there is no separation of church and state which seem to hold each other hostage with the church owning vast amounts of property and having so much money in Greek banks that were they to withdraw it the banks would collapse. The Minister of Education is actually the minister of Education and Religion. The Orthodox church is the most powerful organization in Greece for better or worse, for good or evil, (only God knows).