|
|
|
Submitted March 5, 2005
Priest “Laundering?” |
 |
 |
All
Orthodox faithful should take pause over a Sunday,
February 20th front-page article in the
Chicago Tribune. It is about a priest, Fr.
Iakovos Giosakis, who came from Greece and was
apparently embezzling money from his parish in
Chicago during his two-year stay from 1999 to
2001. This matter certainly suggests that parish
councils should require a “background-check”, and
not just accept a new priest from their bishop –
or, as in this case, from whatever “authority”
makes the assignment.
It’s as though this man’s sponsors, whoever
they really were, enabled him to come here to
“milk those Americans” for as much as he could,
and then skip town – with the aid of the Greek
Consulate, to boot. (This man is currently in jail
in Greece and the charges against him there appear
to be even more serious than what he may have been
charged with here.)
There are a number of troubling questions raised
by this sad story, aside from wondering why we all
weren’t aware of the Chicago events earlier.
-
First, how did he get an OK to come here from
Greece? Which bishop there gave him permission
to come here and under what circumstances? He
apparently already had a questionable record in
Greece, and the news article says his visa did
not permit him to work for a salary here. Did
the Church of Greece send him here with a
recommendation, like some Catholic bishops have
done with priests in trouble who were sent to
another country? Was he “hiding-out” here for a
while?
-
It
appears that the sponsoring jurisdiction here
was the “Stavropegial Monasteries and Churches”,
based in Astoria, N.Y., with their main unit
being the Monastery of St. Irene Chrysovalantou,
mentioned in the article. The 2002 GOA Yearbook
lists this group under “Other Jurisdictions of
the Ecumenical Patriarchate.” They have 12
“dependencies” listed, mostly churches,
including SS. Athanasios and John Greek Orthodox
Church in Chicago where Fr. Giosakis was the
priest.
It may be recalled that this group was
formerly “Old Calender”, and was brought under
the EP with some fanfare when
Archbishop Spyridon was here. This was a
feather in the cap of
the Archbishop and as the “Exarch of the
Ecumenical Throne in
the
Western Hemisphere”, he installed Metropolitan
Paisios as Abbot of the monastery. The group
had been in the U.S., with their base in
Astoria, for many years. As was reported in the
Voithia website at the time, this was also the
group whose newsletter, “The Voice of
Orthodoxy”, used strong anti-Semitic language,
and some priests in the New York area reportedly
objected to the group joining the EP.
After the Chicago scandal broke, the monastery
tried to distance itself from Giosakis. The
Tribune article tells us that they said: “When
he was in Chicago, he was also on loan to us”
and that “he was not a priest of the
monastery.” Well, what was he, and who loaned
him?
-
Then, how was it that Archbishop Athenagoras of
Central
America was involved? He is said to have helped
Giosakis obtain his position in Chicago,
accepted a $3000 donation from
him and consulted with the police about his
troubles. Why
would the archbishop from Central America be
involved? Was
Giosakis also “loaned” to him for supervision?
If so, who
authorized that? The article also says that
Patriarch Bartholomew criticized the Archbishop
for his role in this case,
(But, apparently he didn’t criticize the
autocephalous Church of Greece.)
-
In
a recent “feel good” interview in The National
Herald, Metropolitan Paisios, head of the
Astoria group, was asked about the past seven
years since they “joined the Church”. He said
“These have been blessed years, filled with
heavenly blessings…We have been blessed by the
Lord to belong to the Mother Church.” He was
not asked about the Giosakis matter. He was
asked about his relations with the GOA and with
Archbishop Demetrios and said they “…couldn’t be
characterized as anything but benevolent.” (All
that was missing in the interview was the
violins.) One would think that if the
archbishop is the Exarch, then the Metropolitan
would have cleared the U.S. assignment of
Giosakis with the GOA. Did he?
-
In
some of my previous articles I have raised
questions about the movements of priests from
one jurisdiction to another. In such situations,
names are sometime changed and, in any case, the
new community is not told of priest’s
background. This case is an example of such
movement, on an international level. In my
view, we should be questioning such “laundering”
of a priest and looking at whether this is
happening in other cases. We should be
expecting explanations and accountability from:
The Church of Greece, Metropolitan Paisios,
Archbishop Athenagoras, Archbishop Demetrios and
from the Patriarch. If we claim to be
Pan-Orthodox, we have an obligation to be as
interested in the Astoria monastery, in this
case, as we are in the main jurisdictions.
Paul
Cromidas
Dallas, Texas
|
