Church of Greece elects moderate as Archbishop

Greece's Orthodox Church elected on Thursday a moderate and popular bishop, Metropolitan of Thebes Hieronymos, as its new head, live TV pictures showed.

Hieronymos, who was also a candidate 10 years ago against the late Archbishop Christodoulos, is regarded as a soft-spoken cleric, less fiery than his predecessor.

Christodoulos died in late January after a seven-month battle with cancer, after leading the powerful institution closer to younger people and mending ties with the Vatican. Over 95 percent of Greece's 10 million population are Orthodox Christians.

Hieronymos, born in 1938, had repeatedly clashed with Christodoulos and refused to back the Church in crucial large rallies in 2000 to oppose the then Socialist government's plans to remove a reference to religion from EU-approved IDs.

He won 45 of 74 votes in the second round of voting after none of the four candidates won an outright majority in the first try.

Hundreds of supporters and clerics had gathered outside Athens' Metropolitan cathedral for a glimpse of their new spiritual leader, who has degrees in archaeology and Byzantine studies.

Many started clapping and cheering when a lamp outside the Athens cathedral, where the vote was held, lit up denoting a new archbishop had been chosen.