Greece's majority Orthodox Church and municipal authorities in Athens are at loggerheads over claims that the city plans to license extra brothels during next year's Olympic Games

Christian Century, August 23, 2003

* Greece's majority Orthodox Church and municipal authorities in Athens are at loggerheads over claims that the city plans to license extra brothels during next year's Olympic Games. The church's Holy Synod denounced reported plans of the Greek capital's mayor to register 230 brothels in time for the Olympics, to be staged in Athens irk August 2004.

"This decision constitutes an insult to the city of Athens and will only satisfy the gangs of procurers who carry out the unchecked trafficking of young foreign women," the church's governing Holy Synod said in July. However, municipal officials countered that they only wanted a more realistic prostitution law to replace current legislation that has largely been ignored, according to published reports. "We can't take an ostrich-like approach to this," said deputy mayor Ira Valsamaki. "All we've said is that we want to bring seine order by getting brothel evaders to register their establishments. Solutions must be found, and found quickly."