There was a Greek Priest, a Polish Priest and .....

For years the priest served the parishes of the Kato Meri was Pater Antoni. He was funny, personable and prone to enjoy the raki that flows like water in Aetofolia. However, as most situations dissolve into gripes and bites around here, three years ago or so, he was relocated to Kardiani. The bishop assigned a new priest, Pater Rihardo to these parishes. Pater Rihardo (or Richard) is a Polish immigrant and speaks Greek fluently but with a very heavy accent. His Greek however is not the obstacle to the people's hearts but his cold Soviet style manner which does not befriend him to any of the villagers with the exception of the Stamna family.


As I listened to the villagers on their front stoops have their say to each other about him and his ways, I assumed that a grain of salt should be applied to most of their angst. However, what you hear in this situation is what you get. When I first saw him I didn't even realize that he was the priest. There was a burly shorn blonde walking through the village wearing jeans, a striped polo shirt and a briefcase. I expected to see someone with a black shirt and a white collar. There is no white collar here.

One of the problems that the village has pertains to the community center that is attached to the church of St. John. A doctor comes every week to tend to the infirm elderly folk and usually goes to the community center and writes prescriptions. Father Richard decided that he didn't want to give the key to the community anymore. The villagers were up in arms over the fact that they had to visit with the doctor in someone's home (no patient privacy rights there). They stopped Father Richard on the street after a liturgy and told him that they wanted the key for the doctor. He said no.

Last year, the community of Aetofolia decried the good name of Pater Rihardo to the local and Athenian newspapers. There is a marble quarry less than 1 mile from the village that the church has the rights to mine. A company approached him and an agreement was reached between Pater Rihardo and the company for them to mine the marble and pay the church 1 Euro (no, that was not a typo) that's right, 1 euro for the cubic meter of excellent quality marble so that they can throw into the ocean and create a buffer in the bay at the port town. The community of Aetofolia took the company to court and won. The company was fined 380,000 euro and they abondoned the project.

Yesterday, there was a liturgy at Sacred Heart, a small church in the fields above the well source of the village. The Armaou family had requested the liturgy for the well being of the family, of which these are the pictures. Pater Rihardo conducted the liturgy and then there was supposed to be a town meeting at the community center. None of the winter residents attended. There was only my father and I and three others, one of which is the community president but all only summer residents. Pater Rihardo said as there were no villagers there to decide the matter of the key to the community center, he will still control the access. There was also the matter of the 30 square meters that the community had requested from a land parcel that the church owns to build a playground for the children. Pater Rihardo, took two newspaper clippings out of his briefcase, threw them on the table and said I will NOT sanction the 30 square meters for your playground for the children becuase I'm still angry that you maligned my good name to the newspapers over the marble situation. Loud voices, angry words and bitter feelings ensued. I wonder who's next in line...