Greek church causes fresh identity crisis

Greece's powerful Orthodox church careered towards a head-on collision with the government last night after its spiritual leader gave a fire-and-brimstone speech denouncing Athens' decision to drop any reference to religion from state identity cards.

Archbishop Christodoulos, presenting a petition with 3m signatures - more than a quarter of the population - to the ruling Socialist government, demanded a referendum on the issue. "The church has been treated with contempt," he said. "Over half of the active population of Greece support us."

Priests have been collecting signatures since last year, often pressing guests at funerals, weddings and religious services to join the "holy war".

But the government, which passed the legislation to bring Greek privacy laws in line with European Union standards, rejected the appeal.

"The issue is closed," its spokesman, Dimitris Reppas, said. In March Greece's highest administrative court ruled that putting religious affiliation on the compulsory identity cards was unconstitutional. Religious minorities have long complained of discrimination in overwhelmingly Orthodox Greece.

However, the government's stance is unlikely to stop the church's protests. The lines between church and state are blurred in Greece and Orthodox clerics fear that their power will be eroded by the directive. They have hinted that they might take to the streets to oppose the change.

Christodoulos last week fuelled the row by questioning the ability of the reformist prime minister, Costas Simitis, to run Greece, calling him a pale imitation of his predecessor, the late Andreas Papandreou. Mr Simitis's popularity has dropped in recent months, not least amonghis own MPs.

Commentators said that the timing of the attack amounted to an implicit call by Christodoulos for the overthrow of the government. The conservative opposition and press are behind the archbishop, who has drawn support from Greeks worst hit by the global economic downturn and cutbacks in the state sector.