Europe threatens Mount Athos.

Strasbourg, France -- French Euro deputy Fode Sylla, who prepared a proposal-report concerning the EU Fundamental Rights situation for 2002, included a reference to the special status enjoyed by the monastic community of Mount Athos in northern Greece. The isles of Athos have not allowed entry to women for a thousand years. The Euro deputies see this as an infringement on women's human rights, and they have asked the Greek government to revise the prohibition. The Sylla report was opposed by deputies of the Greek (Socialist) government, but if the proposal goes forward it might face a second vote. The Greek government and the Orthodox Church defend the status of the monastic community because of its 1,000-year link with the country's traditions, values, symbols, and religious faith.

"It's simply unbelievable," exclaimed one woman, Hilary White, spokeswoman for Toronto's Campaign Life Catholic. "Is no one ever to be left alone by these busy-bodies? As a Catholic woman, I can truly say that I have always been grateful that the monks of Athos have been there praising, worshipping, and interceding with God on my behalf and I have never felt the slightest desire to go there and disturb their peace. Who will liberate us from these tyrants of secularist intolerance?"