Attention, though: the Church never turns against the immigrant as a person; the person who sufers oten enjoys the Church’s charity, and this should not be underestimated. The Special Synodical Committee for Immigrants, Refugees and Repatriates is tangible proof of a radically diferent ecclesiastical speech and action to the one analyzed here.130 However, despite the fact that today the perception of the archbishop himself is to the direction of solidarity with the beleaguered immigrant population, sermons to the opposite have not ceased. Bishop Anthimos of Thessaloniki stated, regarding the (previous) government’s immigration plan, that “if it is enforced, the country will turn black, we will be illed with Al-Qaeda Annexes”, adding that “you cannot bring 700,000 Muslims in the country and make them Greek without asking the Church”131. The same Bishop, in a visit to Agios Panteleimon in Athens, stated that “his eyes were illed with black”, apparently due to the great number of non-white immigrants.132 It is obvious that ecclesiastical philanthropy to poor immigrants is not enough as long as Bishops infect public speech with open racism. 8/ SEXISM: THE “FLAW” OF HOMOSEXUALITY Homosexuality does not escape the aggressive attitude of the Church. Regarding homosexuality, the late Archbishop Christodoulos had declared from the pulpit that it is an “obvious sin” and a “law”,133 an issue on which the Hellenic League for Human Rights had replied to him that “the real law is racism”.134 Bishop of Piraeus Seraphim has been a protagonist in this issue too, as, in a statement issued on 21 March 2008 regarding homosexual marriage, he mentioned: “Upheaval and intense worry are dominant characteristics of the Greek society lately, with the efort of certain ‘circles’ to degrade and completely ridicule the highest ideal of the human person and their dignity. The stated intent of a small part of political institutions of the local government to act arbitrarily towards the provisions of the legislator, the common sense and moral order, by allowing same-sex marriages, is a manifestation of criminal insult, sacrilege and degradation of human life, since the paranoia of the psychopathological deviations of the genital realm, which go against nature and the human organism, is called progress … We are convinced that an abuse of human freedom is being attempted, with the creation of a callous and morally vacant people”. In a more recent statement regarding the same issue (7 September 2011), he continues with similar rhetoric: “At the same time, the operation of a law preparatory committee, as published in the media ... on the shameful, vulgar, malicious and 130. 131. 132. 133. 134. See http://www.ecclesia.gr/greek/holysynod/commitees/metanastes/metanastes.htm See http://www.romfea.gr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4168:-q------q&catid=26:2009-12-18-08-38-40&Itemid=127&month=2&year=2010. See http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.article&id=218730. See http://news.pathinder.gr/greece/news/120026.html. See http://www.hlhr.gr/index.php?MDL=pages&SiteID=468. MAPPING ULTRA-RIGHT EXTREMISM, XENOPHOBIA AND RACISM WITHIN THE GREEK STATE APPARATUS | 89