Just read the articals and watched the video.
700 BILLION euros-----i did nt othink they are that rich!!!!!!!!!
they could pay off the entire greek debt, 365bill and still have $$ left over to party, for years to come.
buti have a question in the vidio link above @ 1:58 he says the state pays the salary of the monks priest and biships. Ok, but MONKS!
MONKS get paid?!
i thought monks give away their property and $$ before becoming a monk.
Can anyone explaing this, is it true or did the guy just mispeak??
Monks, generally if I recall correctly, give their property and money to the monastery they join when they are tonsured. So long as they reside at a monastery, in the way that a normal monk does, that can support itself (either through some sort of industry or because of very generous benefactors), there is not really a reason for a monk to have any money that they might call their own, nor to draw a salary. However, not all monasteries are capable of supporting themselves through industry or donations, and consequently some monks work in the world to draw a salary (for instance, the Abbot of the ROCOR monastery on Vashon Island, Washington, currently - or, at the very least I am almost certain, in the past - works(ed) as a teacher at a nearby school, drawing a salary to help support his monastery; some other monks do similar things). It is quite reasonable to believe that if such a case arose in Greece, said monks might - if they are hieromonks - do regular in-the-world priestly work, for which they have every right to be paid. As well, there are many monks who do not live at monasteries, and live in the world, generally employed as chaplains or parish priests or other such positions. However, it is always possible that that is a reference to something I'm unaware of, or simply a misstatement on the part of the article-writer.
As to your general point, I'd again say that most (probably nearly all) of the wealth of the Greek Church is in land, buildings (such as parishes, diocesan offices, etc., and that the number may well include the value of monasteries of the Greek Church), icons, ecclesiastical items (chalices, etc.), and other such things. It is not as though the Greek Church (unless things have gone very, very, very wrong in Greece) is hoarding gold bullion in mass quantities.