His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia has been conferred an Honorary Doctorate by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), in recognition of his contribution to the Church, theology, and public discourse.
The honour was jointly awarded by the NKUA’s Department of Theology and the Department of Social Theology and Religious Studies.
The official ceremony took place on the evening of Wednesday, May 7, in the packed Great Hall of the University of Athens. Among those in attendance were His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, senior clergy, members of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia (GOAA), dignitaries, academics, and representatives from the Greek and Australian governments, including Australian Ambassador to Greece Alison Duncan.
Rector Professor of Medicine Gerasimos Siassos welcomed Archbishop Makarios to the university, describing him as a figure who “embodies the combination of faith and knowledge, tradition and progress, humility and greatness.”
“We hope that the wisdom, virtue and dedication that characterise your journey will always constitute a shining example and a springboard of hope for the future of Orthodoxy and Hellenism,” he added.
Professor Emmanuel Karageorgoudis, Dean of the Theological School, praised the Archbishop’s ability to bridge theology with lived experience, saying: “In his person, academic Theology meets tangible liturgical mystagogy as the logical entity of science partakes of the apophatic language of experience.”
Following the presentation of official texts and the ceremonial investiture, Archbishop Makarios expressed gratitude for the distinction.
“I accept [it] as a special distinction that reflects towards the Apostolic and Ecumenical Throne of Constantinople, to which I belong, towards the highly respected person of our Patriarch and towards the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, which with the grace and mercy of God I shepherd,” he said.
The Archbishop then delivered a keynote address titled “Vox Populi (Voice of the People) on the Internet: The contemporary threat of the corruption of ecclesiastical and democratic thought.”
In his speech, His Eminence explored the challenges posed by digital discourse, particularly on the internet, arguing that the so-called “voice of the people” online can be misleading.
“We cannot accurately detect the ‘voice of the people’ on the internet, because there is more noise coming from the shouting minority than the truth that is not expressed by the silent majority,” he noted.
He encouraged engagement with the silent majority to combat online toxicity, misinformation, and hate speech: “The people tell us that evil rages when good people do nothing… The inaction of the silent majority is ultimately what allows the few on the internet to form an image of the Church and Democracy, which, however, is not true.”
A dinner was later held in the Archbishop’s honour at the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens.
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