Bishops do not take a religious oath

A quarter of a century ago, in June 1998, the sixth section of the Council of State was examining a seemingly paradoxical case: The Theological School of the University of Athens was refusing to award a degree to one of its graduates because he refused to take the established religious oath. The graduate, who probably knew the Scriptures, the sacred canons and modern Greek history better than his professors, had appealed to justice.

He was neither an atheist nor a Bolshevik. He invoked his own Christian conscience. His main argument was based on the third Commandment ("Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain") and the words of Jesus, "But I tell you not to swear at all." The Council of State found in his favor, declared the act of the Theological School illegal and decided that the...