And this admission is not a recent invention of some "independent" authority, but established situation in Greek Education, whenever non-religious or non-religious were found at the same desks.
The spirit of tolerance and respect for diversity, που διείπε και διέπει την Ελληνική Πολιτεία και την Ορθόδοξη Εκκλησία, επέβαλε όχι μόνο την απαλλαγή ετεροθρήκων και αλλοθρήσκων από το μάθημα των Θρησκευτικών, even if they were Roman Catholics, with whom the differences in the subject matter were minimal, but he went ahead, for decades, στην ανάληψη από το Κράτος της δαπάνης για την πληρωμή θεολόγων για τα παιδιά των θρησκευτικών μειονοτήτων, όπου αυτές υπήρχαν.
Στη Σύρο, in fact, από τη δεκαετία του 1960, they serve in the Schools of Secondary Education and PCatholic Theologians, in which another lesson is thus taught, that of mutual respect and truth, της πραγματικής ανεξιθρησκίας· όχι αυτής, που επιδιώκει να εξαφανίσει τη θρησκεία, αλλά αυτής που σέβεται τους πιστούς κάθε δόγματος και θρησκείας!
Κανείς δεν περίμενε, sure, that, 1800 χρόνια και περισσότερο, μετά την παύση των διωγμών, 194 years, μετά την αποτίναξη της Τουρκοκρατίας και 25 χρόνια μετά την ηχηρή κατάρρευση των καθεστώτων, που οραματίστηκαν το τέλος κάθε θρησκείας, trivializing, displacing, torturing and raping to death exterminating its functionaries, and with particular fury the ministers of the Orthodox Church, θα βρισκόμαστε αντιμέτωποι με παρόμοια κατάσταση…
Ούτε λίγο, ούτε πολύ, στο όνομα της “Δημοκρατίας”(!) και της “ανεξιθρησκίας” (!) απαγορεύεται να μιλάμε για θρησκεία, αποτελεί «ευαίσθητο»(!!) personal data, taboo subject, which we are not allowed to talk about in Public Schools, in violation of the article 16 of the Constitution, which sets as the purpose of education "the development of the national and religious consciousness of the Greeks", and of the article 1 of the current Education Law 1566/1985, which mentions as the purpose of Education "for the students to be possessed by faith in the genuine elements of the orthodox Christian tradition";
Sure, the Orthodox Christian does not "study" his faith but experiences it as a personal "walk to Emmaus", the end of which is the perfect knowledge of God. But neither can one claim with certainty that the Religious Studies course guarantees the creation of true Christians.
Nowadays, Nevertheless, of the radical reversal of the scale of values, in which the human person is trivialized, human dignity is degraded and in which we must preserve our National identity, in the midst of globalization, and the maelstrom of multiple crisis, in which our Motherland has fallen, and no-of course- with the responsibility or fault of Orthodoxy, the Religious Studies course, the ultimate lesson in moral life, it must, instead of shrinking, to improve and expand, and for reasons of national survival.
"We are saved through the Church", which the wise jurist Nikolaos Sharipoulos shouted at the Second National Assembly, the 1864, it was not a momentary moment of religious outburst, but a finding of timeless significance and power.
Why, according to the sober historian N. Svoronos "...The Church remains from the 10th to the end of the 17th century the guideline of the Nation. Leader of the national resistance in all its forms...participating in all rebellions, even directing them"!
Her, exactly, of the Church the doctrines of faith, the history and the timeless towards the slave and free Genus, in war and in peace, continuous offering teaches the Religious Studies course, imparting moral consciousness and pure patriotism to the youth.
That is why the Religious Studies course in Schools is - it must be, and if not, to become- not just a general religious education course, but a lesson, which will trigger internal searches, a true guide to spiritual and moral appreciation.
If we want to be called and be Greek….
† Dorotheos II of Syros and Mykonos
("DEMOKRATIA" newspaper, Saturday, 3 October 2015)