December 27, 2006

Monks clash over control of monastery

THESSALONIKI, Greece

Rival groups of monks wielding crowbars and sledgehammers clashed last week over control of a 1,000-year-old monastery.

Esphigmenou monastery is the scene of a long-running dispute between Orthodox authorities and rebel monks who occupy the facility. Greece’s highest administrative court ordered their eviction, but the monks refuse to budge.

The fighting broke out between the rebel monks and a group of legally recognized monks who were outside. The outsiders attempted to force their way into the monastery’s offices in Karyes, the administrative centre of the monastic community, to begin construction of a new building.

Occupying monks attacked those outside with crowbars and fire extinguishers. Esphigmenou’s rebel abbot, Methodius, said his monks had been provoked.

“They should be ashamed to call themselves men of the cloth,” he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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