Bishop Panteleimon Suspended

  • Thread starter Thread starter HagiaSophia
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

HagiaSophia

Guest
Greece’s Orthodox Church suspended a senior bishop Friday as it struggled to deal with growing corruption scandals that have brought deep embarrassment to the institution.

Metropolitan bishop Panteleimon of Attica was suspended for six months pending a church probe into alleged embezzlement of parish funds and ``ethical’’ misconduct.

The church’s governing Holy Synod, which made Friday’s announcement, also on Thursday suspended a priest Thursday who has been charged with antiquity smuggling and is under investigation in a major trial-fixing scandal.

The priest, archmandrite Ioakovos Giosakis, was arrested early Friday after a prosecutor listed him as a flight risk.
Thirteen judges and judicial officials have been summoned to testify at a Supreme Court investigation into the trial-fixing charges, and face dismissal.

The allegations surrounding judges and the clergy have been fueled by the nightly broadcast on private television stations of alleged wiretaps of telephone conversations containing lurid financial and even sexual details.
Panteleimon said tapes purportedly of his conversations were fake.

``The church is facing a crisis on an unprecedented scale with daily revelations of involvement of the clergy in all kinds of scandals,’’ the Athens daily Ta Nea commented.

``This requires radical changes within the church, including the way its finances are managed … Half measures are not enough.’’
The government said it supports a proposal by the church to amend decades-old legislation and simplify procedures required to prosecute members of the clergy.

``We are waiting for the details of this proposal … The government supports cleanup efforts under way within the ranks of the church,’’ government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said.’’

guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4779460,00.html
 
Sorry to hear that. All our churches need strong leaders it hurts the body of Christ when shepherds fail their flock we catholics know that all to well in recent times.
 
40.png
Maccabees:
Sorry to hear that. All our churches need strong leaders it hurts the body of Christ when shepherds fail their flock we catholics know that all to well in recent times.
Click to expand...
Amen! It just breaks my heart when I read this kind of thing, I grieve for the reputations of those charged who may be innocent, I want to ask the guilty - what were you thinking - how could you? We are so wounded, the secularism and nihlism of the world beats upon the doors of Christianity with a mailed fist and when this kind of thing happens, the sorrow and the cynicism it breeds among fellows Christians lasts for so long.
 
Although many non-catholics are happy for the abuse cases in USA and other countries in the Catholic Church, I am very sad for this about orthodoxy, it isn´t good and all are losing credibilty for the scandals of orthodoxy, catholicism and anglicanism ( a possibly transexual priest). We have to pray a lot.
 
Where are the arguments that this is all caused by celibacy and an all male priesthood?
 
40.png
Franze:
Although many non-catholics are happy for the abuse cases in USA and other countries in the Catholic Church, I am very sad for this about orthodoxy, it isn´t good and all are losing credibilty for the scandals of orthodoxy, catholicism and anglicanism ( a possibly transexual priest). We have to pray a lot.
Click to expand...
Hi Franze, I for one am not happy. Yes, I hate the sin not the sinner. Evertime the body of Christ suffers ,so do I. 😦 God Bless
 
40.png
SPOKENWORD:
Hi Franze, I for one am not happy. Yes, I hate the sin not the sinner. Evertime the body of Christ suffers ,so do I. 😦 God Bless
Click to expand...
We all christians, and we are losing with this, credibility and strength.
 
40.png
cestusdei:
Where are the arguments that this is all caused by celibacy and an all male priesthood?
Click to expand...
Since this is about theft and embezzlement, I doubt that any of that will come into play…
 
Hagia,
It always comes into play somehow when it is about the Catholic Church.
 
40.png
Franze:
Although many non-catholics are happy for the abuse cases in USA and other countries in the Catholic Church, I am very sad for this about orthodoxy, it isn´t good and all are losing credibilty for the scandals of orthodoxy, catholicism and anglicanism ( a possibly transexual priest). We have to pray a lot.
Click to expand...
I have never heard or read a non-Catholic, Christian or otherwise, express “happiness” about the sex scandals plaguing the Catholic Church, I wonder where you got your information. The last line, about a transexual priest is obviously out of context and I cannot make out what you mean. Other than that what damages one Christian body damages the whole Mystical Body of Christ, even if the damage is inflicted on a denomination not entirely in communion with the Church, which is certainly true.
 
puzzle,
I have. On beliefnet their were people who positively exulted over the scandals. I sincerely believe that they hoped children would be abused so they could attack the Catholic Church. Never underestimate the hatred of anti-Catholic bigots.
 
40.png
cestusdei:
Hagia,
It always comes into play somehow when it is about the Catholic Church.
Click to expand...
Because you have to admit in this case the enemy came from within and put the sword in the hands of the bigots to jab at us with.

It’s going to be 100 years before the church regains the credibility she once had in this country. Add to the scandal some of the idiocy which emanates out of the USCB and well what can I sayother than it’s proof as my friend used to say, that the church is divinely founded, or it would have not survived the non-sense lo these many years without the protection of God Himself. It’s sad, but we might as well face it, we are never in our lifetime going to stop hearing about the scandale and wait until the slew of books comes out - many of these people will sell their stories, many attorneys will write up these cases. It ain’t over by a long shot.
(Sigh)
 
40.png
cestusdei:
puzzle,
I Never underestimate the hatred of anti-Catholic bigots.
Click to expand...
Some of the cartoons, lampoon pieces and insults dished out to priests on the street, caused more than a few to quit wearing their clericals outside unless they were in “safe” territory. What has happened to the church, to the priesthood, to the priests who faithfully serve us and give their entire lives to their ministry, is so sad as to make one weep. And while I expect every honest reporter to report the story, many of them exulted in it and cared not a whit for the reputations or lives of anyone innocent who happened to get in the way of the story.

You are quite correct, there are those who celebrate it because it feeds whatever bigotry they initially had. IMO Rome still doesn’t grasp how big a tsunami this was in this country.
 
40.png
cestusdei:
puzzle,
I have. On beliefnet their were people who positively exulted over the scandals. I sincerely believe that they hoped children would be abused so they could attack the Catholic Church. Never underestimate the hatred of anti-Catholic bigots.
Click to expand...
The situation in the Catholic Church with the misbehavior of certain priests was grossly misreported by the anti-Catholic media, who despise the Church for opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, sex outside of marriage, stem-cell research, and other “pet” liberal media causes. “Pedophile priest” became a favorite term of newscasters, never mind that very few cases involved pedophilia, but rather adolescent boys and homosexual priests. That fact was never mentioned because of media support for the homosexual agenda. The airwaves were saturated with the term. The media never let the facts get in the way of what they consider to be a “good” story.

One of the few studies done on clergy misconduct concluded that celibate Catholic priests have a much lower incidence of sexual misconduct than married Protestant clergymen. (Philip Jenkins, Penn State University, author of Pedophiles and Priests: Anatomy of a Social Crisis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, and The New Anti-Catholicism The Last Acceptable Prejudice New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, and many other books.)

Jenkins is an Episcopalian – an ex-Catholic.

You can read his magazine article about “pedophile priests” here. (It appeared in several magazines):
post-gazette.com/forum/comm/20020303edjenk03p6.asp

JMJ Jay
 
I don’t discount the scandals. But to concentrate on such a small group and ignore the vast number of cases that don’t involve priests? That shows they could care less about child abuse. They just want to attack the Catholic Church. In 100 years they will find other reasons to hate and attack us. It will never end. I do wear my collar and have been insulted for it. I wear it anyway.
 
Before finding himself at the center of a growing scandal involving sex, drugs, trial-fixing and trafficking in precious icons, Giosakis served Sts. Athanasios and John Church in Chicago for about two years. He fled the country days after Chicago police seized a computer, church financial records and personal documents in a raid of the apartment where he lived as the guest of an elderly parishioner.

The priest’s arrest Feb. 4 in the Athens port of Piraeus rocked a country where Orthodoxy is the state religion and almost everyone is baptized into the faith.

Now jailed in Athens, Giosakis is charged with stealing Byzantine icons from a monastery on a Greek island. He is also under investigation in a corruption case in which judges are accused of fixing trials involving drug dealers and church elections.

chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0502200101feb20,1,7500910.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top