Athens, 25/02/2006
Your Beatitude,
Officiating at a ceremony in memoriam,
Even the symbolism of your action is perspicuous.
We all, the Church, the Political Leadership, the Operational Leadership of the Security Forces, of the Hellenic Police Force,
Mr. Chief, Colleagues-Representatives of the Political Parties, Generals, Ladies and Gentlemen,
We all honor the Police Officer, who has perished on duty,
We all honor the Hero.
In this short address, Your Beatitude, let me draw your attention to three points. The first point I would like to make is that it is a wonderful initiative to honour the perished officers on this Saturday of the year, which is the All Souls` Day. Our ecclesiastical Constitution, the Credo in other words, defines six topics in our doctrine.
The first three of them are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with their holiest – as far as I am concerned – capacities. The other three topics express a state of mind and soul; in the first place, there is our Church as a holistic unity of people, thoughts and spirits. In the second place, there is the ?resurrection of the dead?. The Credo says that we believe in “life in the future centuries”. I would like to dedicate these two quotes to the families of the victims; we shall all indeed meet that day and we shall live an eternal life.
This is what I expect, because what is happening today has not been the tradition. At this point, let me congratulate the Chairman of the Federation for this initiative to honour our dead people on All Souls` Day, so that we can be coherent in our actions and beliefs.
Moreover, I would also like to reiterate that their families have not lost them forever. They shall meet again. The Police Family has not lost its people forever. Their souls still live among us and their memory is still alive, standing before us as a role-model. Their existence was a role-model of a human being and of the sense of duty.
This is a great moment and I definitely mean that; we are currently honouring the souls of the perished officers who thus become heroes. A hero is not someone who has just been trained in martial arts in some school. A hero is a graduate of the School of Ethics, a hero is someone who embodies the Greek and religious concept of “ethos”, in other words moral life and actions to the benefit of our country, our values and our mission.
This is how we honor our perished people, with the blessing of the church and with the utmost realization of the meaning and the value of their offer. We, the citizens, our children, we all have a great lesson to be taught from their role-model being.
I believe that their memory shall live for ever. I do not wish to enter now into the discussion of what moral stand we should adopt against those who fell like heroes. I fully subscribe to the debate as previously defined by the Chairman and I wish I can someday find myself in the position of repaying the debt on behalf of this State to both the perished on duty and the active police officers.
With all this in mind, let me thank you all very much and ask for the Church`s blessing.
