ATHENS, Feb 11 (AFP) - The popularity of the head of the Greek Orthordox Church has plummeted after a series of corruption scandals involving church officials and his own links with a convicted drug dealer wanted by Interpol, according to an opinion poll published Friday.
The percentage of people with a favourable opinion of Archbishop Christodoulos has sunk in the past 10 months from 68 per cent to 43 percent, in a country which is 98 percent Orthodox.
Archbishop Christodoulos is under fire for writing a letter in 1996 appealing to a judge to support a request for a convicted drug trafficker, Apostolos Vavylis, to be released from custody.
Vavylis was a member of Christodoulos's congregation at his former diocese of Volos, and the archbishop has defended himself on the basis of his "pastoral duty" saying he should not be judged solely on secular criteria.
Vavylis has been wanted by Interpol and Greek police since 1998. He was earlier arrested in 1988 for drug trafficking and was sentenced two years later to 13 years in jail. He was later freed after being granted parole on appeal.
The other church scandals concern corruption of judges by priests, which has shocked the faithful in this deeply religious country.
Police arrested a senior clergyman, Archimandrite Iakovos Giosakis, on February 4. According to media reports, Giosakis is alleged to have bribed four law officers for personal benefit and to the advantage of two Orthodox bishops, Metropolitan Panteleimon and Metropolitan Theoklitos, both close associates of the archbishop.
In an attempt to contain the damage to the church the archbishop has ordered all church officials to no longer speak to the media.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis, whose conservative parliamentary majority is supported by the senior clergy and who had Christodoulos to dinner at his home, has distanced himself from the scandal calling on the church to wage a relentless fight against the corruption in its ranks.
02/11/2005 15:36 GMT - AFP