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Submitted March 17, 2005
Money and
Misconduct |
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By Paul Cromidas
(This
article/letter was sent to The National Herald,
the Greek-American newspaper based in New York.
The paper asked for documentation about the
priests’ convictions noted in the article. This
was supplied, but the paper chose not to publish
the article. P.C.)
The
appearance in your February 5 issue of a letter
from Metropolitan Isaiah, of the Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of America, and a news report from
Theodore Kalmoukos, calls for a commentary.
The Metropolitan (Bishop) gave one of his
periodic preachments in print, this one mostly
about money, and Mr. Kalmoukos reported yet
another story about fund shortages in the Greek
archdiocese and, in this case, about their
possible relationship to the financial settlements
for sexual misconduct. Are there some connections
here? I think so.
THE ISAIAH LETTER
In his letter, the Metropolitan praised Mr.
Kalmoukos for an article that appeared Dec. 11,
2004, dealing in part with the difficulties of
small parishes supporting a priest. He thanked
him for “sensitizing the readers about very
critical issues in the life of the Church in the
United States”, and he touched on several topics.
Now, it would be a good thing if the Metropolitan
would also recognize other crucial issues of the
day, such as the sexual misconduct brought up in
Mr. Kalmoukos’ Feb. 5th piece. Maybe
he will respond to that. He has not responded to
questions about this issue in his own diocese.
His Denver diocese covers an area from Montana to
Texas that includes some 48 parishes. One of his
priests, Fr. Gabriel Barrow, of the Houston area,
was suspended last year for old allegations of
misconduct and has appeared in a Spiritual Court,
presided over by Metropolitan Isaiah. Yet, the
Metropolitan has told us nothing about it, let
alone what his role was in accepting Fr. Barrow
into his diocese when it was known that Fr. Barrow
had also been suspended previously by the
Antiochian Archdiocese.
In May of 2003, according to the El Paso Times,
Roy Joe Givens, a former Greek Orthodox priest in
El Paso, also known as “Father Mathias”, was
convicted there of sexual misconduct that occurred
some years ago. He had apparently fled the state
and was eventually extradited back to Texas. He
was sentenced to 10 years in state prison. Why
have we heard nothing about that from the diocese
office?
More recently, Fr. Elias Greer of San
Angelo, Texas, was relieved of his duties by the
Metropolitan. We haven’t been given the reason
for that action. I am not suggesting that
misconduct was involved. But, surely, if a
priest‘s suspension has taken place, the faithful
ought to be told why. The church situation in San
Angelo had an unusual aspect about it, to begin
with. The Metropolitan, who says he is concerned
about the viability of small parishes, should tell
us why he allowed a second Greek Orthodox parish
(Fr. Greer’s) to be established in this West Texas
community where there are few Orthodox faithful.
(It has been reported that since the suspension of
Fr. Greer, that parish has been closed).
At least, Fr. Barrow’s and Fr. Greer’s suspensions
were listed in the Orthodox Observer, the official
archdiocese paper, even though, predictably, no
reasons were given.
The archdiocese claims to be serious about the
misconduct issue, but its actions say otherwise.
* Currently, it does not necessarily follow the
misconduct policy it created in 2002.
* In the past, it allowed a priest in Florida to
continue his duties even after his 1989 conviction
and 10-year probation sentence. This man is still
given substitute assignments as a retiree.
* The archdiocese stood by while another convicted
priest from Pennsylvania declared himself a bishop
and set up his “Metropolis” near the archdiocese
headquarters in New York. This man has since been
convicted of child molestation in New York, as
well.
And last year, Metropolitan Isaiah was named
chairman of the Clergy Sexual Misconduct Advisory
Board for the Greek archdiocese! (That shouldn’t
surprise us. This is the same archdiocese that
wanted to give Boston’s Catholic bishop, Cardinal
Bernard Law, an honorary degree from Hellenic
College-Holy Cross Seminary in 2002 at the height
of the abuse revelations there. The Cardinal
resigned by the end of that year.)
The national victims’ organization, SNAP,
(Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), as
well as the Orthodox website, Protection of the
Theotokos, (www.pokrov.org),
have both called on the Metropolitan to step down
from that chairmanship because of his conflicts of
interest. As far as I know, he has ignored these
calls, as has the archdiocese. The Metropolitan
apparently feels that he does not have to account
to any laypeople, let alone “outsiders”. In a
letter he wrote to Houston parishioners in 2003,
after he had been taken to court in a parish
dispute, he said he is only accountable to the
“…Holy Synod of Constantinople” (at the
Patriarchal headquarters in Istanbul).
Would he say that to a District Attorney who might
seek records to trace how Fr. Barrow was accepted
into the archdiocese?
In his letter, the Metropolitan also suggested
abolishing faculty tenure at Holy Cross Seminary
as a way of having more equity among faculty. That
was a curious reference. Here, he seems to have
reverted to the temporary post he held as
president of Hellenic College-Holy Cross Seminary
in the 1997-98 period. How did that position come
about? Perhaps the defining event of the
misguided administration of former Archbishop
Spyridon from 1996 to 1999, was the archbishop’s
dismissal of the president and key, tenured
faculty at the school, when they would not cover
up a dormitory misconduct incident. Following the
gross injustice of those dismissals, the
Metropolitan was willing to assist Archbishop
Spyridon by serving for a year as the interim
president of the seminary and college. His
disdain for those dismissed was evident. So, it
should not surprise us that he is not open about
the misconduct issue now, or that in his recent
letter he questions the practice of faculty
tenure. (Whether tenure is always properly
administered at this school or others is another
issue.)
He was later to join his fellow bishops and many
of the clergy in calling for the removal of
Archbishop Spyridon. The clergy, in their letter
of grievances against the archbishop, cited the
cover-up of sexual misconduct as one of their
complaints.
In his comments about church financial support,
the Metropolitan observed that Protestant
church-goers give money more generously than Greek
Orthodox parishioners. He cited some of the
reasons for the low giving by Greek-Americans. I
submit that for Protestants this generosity has
something to do with the greater voice they have
in the administration of their churches. I submit
that they would not stand for the imposition of a
new charter and regulations, as the Greek Orthodox
in America are expected to do. And, as we have
seen, even the formerly compliant American
Catholics have shown that, hierarchical church or
not, they will hold back their money and they will
confront their bishops with demands and picket
signs, and go to court when they have been
betrayed, as they were in the tragic child abuse
cases.
THE
KALMOUKOS ARTICLE
Mr. Kalmoukos’ front-page article was headed:
“Burdened by Legal Costs, Archdiocese Owes HC/HC
$500,000”. One’s first reaction might be:
“Again?” The archdiocese has been late in its
allocation to the college/seminary before. His
article then quotes sources that say one of the
reasons for the shortage of funds at the
archdiocese is that payments are being made for
clergy sexual misconduct settlements. (I think
that most of us would agree there would still be
shortages even if there were no such
settlements). He does not mention that just
before the Clergy-Laity Congress last year, he
reported that the archdiocese had borrowed $1.5
million to pay these settlements because it no
longer had insurance coverage for this. At that
point, the fact that it had no such insurance was
presented as “hot” news, when, actually, this had
been revealed two years previously, at the 2002
Clergy-Laity Congress, but was not reported at the
time by the Herald.
Mr. Kalmoukos wrote that his archdiocese sources
“…did not provide any details about the cases…”.
He reported the same thing last year. We don’t
have to know the names of the victims, but we
should be given the names of the priests, and this
is something the Herald should be pursuing.
That’s how the Boston Globe made the breakthrough
in its landmark reporting of the Boston Catholic
diocese scandal. It went to court to get the
records. The Herald should do the same, and not
just report every six months that the archdiocese
will not provide any details. One might also
wonder why Mr. Kalmoukos did not interview
Metropolitan Isaiah, as chairman of the misconduct
board, and Bishop Savas, of the archdiocese, who
is supposed to be administering the misconduct
policy.
To the extent that these settlements are a
contributing factor in the archdiocese shortfall,
shouldn’t greater attention then be paid to the
misconduct issue? We may not have the magnitude
of problem that the Catholics have, but it is
clearly significant. The $1.5 million is a
significant percentage of the small archdiocesan
budget that the Metropolitan decries. All of our
bishops should be showing a greater accountability
on this issue. But they and the general Orthodox
laity continue to treat it as a taboo subject.
That is why some of us, at least, must speak up.
(Catholic laypeople have set up a website called
“Bishop Accountability.” There should be one for
Orthodox Bishop Accountability, although some of
this information may be found on the Pokrov site,
mentioned above). Wouldn’t it be a good sign of
Christian stewardship for the Metropolitan to
speak forthrightly to the faithful about this
issue?
One of our country’s best writers on this
matter is the attorney and law professor, Marci
Hamilton, who has written that:
“…The blame for the victims suffering is
society-wide. The newspaper editors who agreed
not to air the Church’s dirty linen failed the
victims. The prosecutors who let the Church take
care of its dirty linen failed the victims. The
legislators who did not require clergy members to
report child abuse, and who set shamefully short
statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse,
failed the victims.
This society’s whitewashing of religious leaders –
as though they can do no wrong - …also failed the
victims. For some of the victims, even their
parents failed them. Every power on which those
children relied for their well-being let them
down.”
The National Herald once referred to lack of
information from the Greek archdiocese as “the
black wall of silence.” For leaders who are
supposed to be the example of Christ-like
behavior, the silence of the bishops on this issue
is unconscionable. During my work years, I saw
the sad eyes of abused children. If the voices of
the laity can save even one child from abuse in
the future, it will have been worth our efforts,
certainly in the eyes of God.
Metropolitan Isaiah concluded his letter by saying
that it’s really Christ’s Church and it’s not
under human control. Well, if that’s so, then
some bishops should step aside.
(Mr. Cromidas is retired executive director of the
Dallas Family Guidance Center, and has served as a
parish council president in a Greek Orthodox
parish.)
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