Greece's center-right government is pushing ahead with a plan to legalize same-sex marriage despite growing opposition from the powerful Orthodox Church, which is not separated from the state.
Government officials said today that the bill will be put to the vote by mid-February, half a month earlier than originally planned. If the law is passed, Greece would become the first country with an Orthodox majority to legalize same-sex marriage.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, the leader of the Orthodox Churches around the world, has expressed its opposition to the same-sex marriage proposal.
"Marriage is the union of a man and a woman under Christ... and the Church does not accept the cohabitation of its members in any other form than marriage," the Ecumenical Patriarchate said.
She thereby repeated the decision of the high church bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church, announced on Tuesday.
Metropolitan Bishop Panteleimon, spokesman for the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, said her written objections would be sent to all members of the Greek parliament and read at Sunday services across the country on February 4.
"What the Church says is that marriage is the union of a man and a woman and that it is the source of life," he told SKAI private television. "The elders of our church are concerned about the defense and support of the family," he added.
Panteleimon said it is too early to comment on the position the Church will take towards children of same-sex parents.
Conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who won a landslide re-election victory last summer, will likely have to rely on opposition party votes to get the measure approved. He faces dissent within the ruling New Democracy, as well as members of his cabinet.
"We are talking about something that is already in force in 36 countries and on five continents. And nowhere does it seem to have undermined the cohesion of society," Mitsotakis told the ministers today.
"I want to be clear: We are referring to decisions made by the state, not to religious beliefs... Our democracy requires that there cannot be two classes of citizens and there certainly cannot be children of a lower god".
Recent opinion polls show that Greeks are divided on same-sex marriage, with conservative voters clearly against it.
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