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5422062_5_0866.xml
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5422062_5_0866.xml
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
<teiHeader>
<fileDesc>
<titleStmt>
<title>
<bibl><title>Saloniki-Greek Press</title>,
<date when="1915-12-04">Dec. 4, 1915</date>.
<title level="a">Our Priests</title><title level="a" type="sub">(Editorial)</title></bibl>
</title>
</titleStmt>
<publicationStmt>
<publisher>The Newberry Library</publisher>
<pubPlace>Chicago, Illinois</pubPlace>
<address>
<addrLine>60 West Walton</addrLine>
<addrLine>Chicago, IL 60610</addrLine>
<addrLine>USA</addrLine>
<addrLine>http://www.newberry.org</addrLine>
</address>
<idno>5422062_5_0866</idno>
</publicationStmt>
<notesStmt>
<note>Transcribed from digital images contributed to the Internet
Archive by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</note>
</notesStmt>
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<bibl><title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey</title>, <date>1936-1941</date>,
<sponsor>Works Projects Administration</sponsor>,
<sponsor>Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project</sponsor></bibl>
<bibl>
<title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey [microform]</title>
<sponsor>University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</sponsor>
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<catRef target="#grp-greek #code-III.C"/>
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<change when="2010-01-22">Automated conversion to expanded header.</change>
<change when="2009-12-22">Initial TEI transcription from PanGeo Partners, Inc.</change>
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<div type="group">
<list>
<item>GREEK</item>
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<div type="codes">
<list>
<item>III C</item>
</list>
</div>
<div type="citation">
<bibl><title>Saloniki</title>,
<date when="1915-12-04">Dec. 4, 1915</date>.
<title level="a">OUR PRIESTS</title><title level="a" type="sub">(Editorial)</title></bibl>
</div>
</front>
<body>
<p>This editorial has been written for the purpose of throwing light upon the pitiful conditions which obtain in our church parishes and schools, and upon the attitudes of the Greek clergy toward these conditions.</p>
<p>We characterize the whole situation by one word--disgraceful. We are ready to defend our accusations. At the same time, we demand certain explanations from our clerics here in America.</p>
<p>What do they consider their duties to be and how do they fulfill them? For what reasons did they enter the service of the church--other than obvious one of making an easy living at the expense of society? If there is a higher, a more moral, or a more patriotic reason, we would like to know about it.</p>
<pb facs="5422062_5_0867.jpg" n="2"/>
<p>We have known up to the present time, over twenty-five priests. Unfortunately, without any exception, they were all mentally a century behind the times, and they have not progressed one iota beyond that stage, while even the poorest and most backward peasant who came to America has made some effort to improve himself in order that he might live in greater sympathy with his surroundings.</p>
<p>The majority of clerics are stubborn, backward, narrow-minded, and greedy. Their only hope is that someone will get married so that they might earn in a few minutes an amount that they do not usually earn in a year--that is, in a small parish. It is true, however, that occasionally they hold vesper services and visit their churches once during the week, not because of their great love but because of their fear of the bishop.</p>
<p>In the large cities having large church parishes, it is not uncommon to see a priestless church on Sunday. The priest has gone to a wedding or a baptism, being attracted no doubt by the shine of the collection plate. Beware of anyone <pb facs="5422062_5_0868.jpg" n="3"/>who is sinner enough to denounce the value of the collection plate.</p>
<p>People who live a few miles outside of the nearest parish are forced to borrow fifty or seventy-five or even a hundred dollars to pay the priest for a baptism. A funeral which calls the priest outside of his parish will cost twenty dollars and expenses. Sometimes a priest will charge, and perforce receive, twenty-five dollars and his expenses.</p>
<p>The priest is always sick when a poor person needs his services. And that, in a nut-shell, is an accurate report of the activities of our clerics in the Greek churches of America.</p>
<p>Once in a while, when there is a special holiday and the church is filled with people, the priest decides to chant the entire ritual; but the chanting is just for the ears of the congregation--certainly not for any divine hearing.</p>
<p>Where can one meet a priest who is willing to sacrifice two hours on Sunday <pb facs="5422062_5_0869.jpg" n="4"/>afternoon to teach religion to the Greek children? Nowhere! Not only do they not do such things, but they probably never even think of them. After all, why should they care?</p>
<p>Our clergy is at least one century behind the times. They think that their only duty is to conduct certain routine services, which are usually mumbled in an incorrect, unmusical, parrot-like manner for a small group of uninterested, inattentive worshipers. The special services, such as baptisms and marriages, are conducted under the most discourteous, degrading conditions, because most of the priests cannot win the respect and attention of their flock.</p>
<p>Under such conditions, what priest would be so foolish as to seek even greater burdens, especially when he has no hope of remuneration? Most of these gentlemen came to America for one of two reasons. First, because they had no parish in Greece or because the one they had was very poor; and second, because America was full of gold dollars available to all--especially the wearers of priestly garb.</p>
<pb facs="5422062_5_0870.jpg" n="5"/>
<p>Although they receive ten times the amount that they received in Greece, these worthies still live the same greedy, stingy, grasping lives they have always lived.</p>
<p>The time has come for the clergy to awake from its lethargy and to shake its skirts clean of the filth that befouls them. We begrudge them nothing, but we do demand that they fulfill their apostolic calling in a more fitting manner.</p>
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