outcry over bishop’s rape remarks

A senior Greek cleric sparked an outcry on Friday (September 2) after saying on national television that rape involved the woman’s consent and did not result in pregnancy.

“A woman is not raped unless she wants tosaid Bishop Chrysostomos of Dodoni to the TV channel during a debate on abortion. A woman “can’t get pregnant“following a rape, and his”participationis necessary to conceive a child, he added.

Bishop Chrysostomos also called abortion “criminality“.

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His statements were swiftly condemned by Education and Religious Affairs Minister Niki Kerameus, to whom he reports, who called them “unthinkable and reprehensible“. Such remarksbrutally shock society and are not in line with the position of the Church, which supports women victims of abuse and rape“, she said.

The Church of Greece, guardian of the dominant Orthodox faith in the country according to the Constitution, is exclusively male and fiercely conservative. She opposes same-sex relationships, premarital sex and abortion, and has also resisted efforts to limit liturgies and communion during the coronavirus pandemic.

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