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Oh how the Mighty Have Fallen!
By Risto Stefov
I am referring to the latest Greek Orthodox Church fiasco. If you have been following the news lately you couldn’t have missed the scathing reports coming out of Greece.
Ordinarily, I don’t like getting involved in internal Church matters, especially scandals in the Greek Church, but given that these matters have affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of Christian Orthodox Macedonians both inside and outside of Greece, I feel it is necessary that I say something.
Our (Macedonian) relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church is very old and stormy. It began in the early part of the 19th century and intensified around 1850 after the appointment of the ecumenical Patriarch in Tsari Grad (Istanbul). Before the appointment the Patriarchy was another administrative function of the Ottoman Empire but with the creation of the Greek State in 1829 its interests began to shift.
The Patriarchy in Tsari Grad was created to serve several functions in the Ottoman administration; banking, foreign services, translation and most importantly governing the non-Muslim subjects. Being an Islamic State, the Ottoman Empire had no civil or secular authority. Both civil and religious matters were governed by religious laws derived from interpretations of the Koran. Unfortunately, there was no such law for non-Muslims.
In the Balkans, in Macedonia in particular, the majority of the non-Muslim population was Pravoslav (Orthodox) Christian. To overcome the rule of law for non-Muslims, the Ottomans allowed the Pravoslav Patriarchy to continue to function but under the direct authority of the Ottoman Sultan.
With the creation of the Ecumenical Patriarchy, the Greek State, which had earlier adopted Christian Orthodoxy as its State religion, indirectly began to lay claims to all Pravoslav Churches, including those in Macedonia.
Almost immediately all churches in Macedonia were infiltrated by the agents of the Patriarch who closely but unofficially cooperated with Athens. By the early 1870’s Slavonic liturgy, which at the time was covertly and illegally conducted since the abolishment of the Macedonian Church in 1767, was replaced by liturgy conducted in Koine. Besides changing the language of liturgy, the Patriarchy began to exploit its parishes to a point of poverty. The Slavonic speakers complained to the Russian authorities, who at the time had appointed themselves guardians of the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. Pressure from Russia forced the Sultan to create another religious governing body, specifically for the Slavonic speakers, which later became known as the Exarchist Church. The Exarchy was created in 1875 at the extreme protest of the Patriarchy, which refused to recognize it. The Sultan created the Exarchy without hesitation because, in his view, the two churches would now compete against each other and not against the Turks.
The Exarchist Church almost immediately took root in Bulgaria and was adopted as the State’s religion in 1878, when Bulgaria gained its autonomy from the Ottomans.
After the Berlin Congress of 1878, when Macedonia was given back to the Ottoman, both the Patriarchy and Exarchy simultaneously began to use their influence inside Macedonia. Initially their interests were to exploit the Macedonian parishes. But later as the political objectives of the Greek and Bulgarian States shifted so did the objectives of the two churches.
When the Great Powers decided that Macedonia should be divided between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, in order to enlarge their territories and better their chances for economic survival, in their great wisdom, they decided that Macedonia should be divided along national lines. Being totally ignorant of what nationalities lived in Macedonia, the Great Powers left the division up to the competing states, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia.
Since Ottoman law only recognized Muslims and non-Muslims, there were no state statistics defining nationalities so the competing states, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia initiated their own census taking.
Since the concept of nationality was fairly new to the people in the Balkans, national sentiments were nonexistent. Being disallowed to interfere in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire, the competing states, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia used their influence through their respective churches, initially to carry out census activities and later to create nationalities where none existed before.
Since there were no national affiliations among the Ottoman subjects in Macedonia, the Greeks adopted the idea that Muslims were Turks and Orthodox Christians were Greeks simply because of their religious affiliation. The same idea was applied in the 1922-24 Greek-Turkish Asia Minor population exchanges where more than one million Christian Turks were evicted from their homes and transplanted in the “New Territories”, Macedonia and Thessaly. Similarly nearly half a million Muslim Macedonians, in spite of their cries that they were not Turks, were uprooted from Macedonia and forcibly evicted to Turkey.
The Bulgarians, on the other hand, adopted the idea that all Slavonic speakers are Bulgarians because they speak a dialect of the Bulgarian language. For that matter, so did the Serbians, Croatians, Montenegrins, Slovenians, Poles, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Russians, etc. But the Bulgarians did not lay claim to them did they? Anyway, they quickly ran into problems when the Serbians began to make similar claims.
The competing states ran into trouble and became the laughing stock of Europe as they published their census statistics each making claims to the same population. Village populations seemed to double and triple literally overnight.
It is interesting to note that among the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Turks, Vlahs, Albanians and Jews that reportedly lived in Macedonia, not a single Macedonian was mentioned to exist in Macedonia. In spite of the fact that the Macedonian peoples organized an all Macedonian rebellion against the Ottomans, still there were no mentions among the competing state statistics of Macedonians living in Macedonia.
When those kinds of statistics alone were not convincing enough for the Great Powers, the competing states, through their respective churches, implemented assimilation policies. Macedonians were coaxed, bribed and paid to register themselves as Greeks, Bulgarians or Serbians. Each church parish registered Macedonians as Greeks, Bulgarians or Serbians, depending on which competing Church controlled the parish. Macedonians, requiring official papers like passports and visas, were helped by the foreign sponsored parish priest or teacher who registered them not as Macedonians but as Greeks, Bulgarians, or Serbians. That is why so many Macedonians who now live in the Diaspora, whose families left Macedonia at the turn of the 19th century, have last names ending with “off”, “os”, “is” and “ou”. Many families that left Greek occupied Macedonia before 1912 had names ending in “off”. These people were Macedonians, parishioners of the Exarchist Church. The Exarchist Church registered them with Bulgarian sounding names in order to claim them as Bulgarians. The Greeks did the same.
The competing Churches were not above laying claims to brothers born of the same mother and father: one being Bulgarian and another being Greek.
When Macedonians found out what was happening, voluntary assimilation became difficult. In spite of claims to the contrary, a Macedonian national consciousness did exist which gave birth to the liberation movement. Krste Misirkov, a great Macedonian writer, warned the Macedonian people to resist assimilation because he could foresee that Macedonia was in danger of being partitioned.
Failing to assimilate the Macedonian masses peacefully, the competing States introduced stricter policies of forced assimilation through sheer terror. All competing states, through their respective churches and clergy, clandestinely sponsored paid brigands to terrorize the population. One of the worst human beings to masquerade as a Greek bishop was Karavangelis who, in the name of Hellenism, personally picked the most evil brigands and personally paid them to torture, murder, decapitate and skin human beings. He considered himself educated and civilized and proudly displayed his trophies of human skulls and human skins in his own home.
After the 1903 Macedonian failed Ilinden rebellion, the Greek Church began to closely cooperate with the Ottoman authorities, including the Ottoman army. Karavangelis, on many occasion, was seen and even photographed blessing the Turkish cannons before they opened fire on civilians in Macedonian villages, turning people and property to dust.
After the 1912-1913 occupation and partition of Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria exchanged populations purely on the basis of church allegiance. Parishioners, who in fact were Macedonians but belonged to the Exarchist Church, were uprooted and driven out of their homes purely on that basis. More than fifty thousand Macedonians were expelled from their lands in the Greek occupied territory simply because they were affiliated with the Exarchist church. The Bulgarians did the same.
Foreign churches, especially the Greek Church have proven to be the strongest and staunchest opponents of Macedonism. Even today, the Greek and Bulgarian Churches refuse to recognize the Macedonian people as a nation. The Serbian Church, on the other hand, is still refusing to recognize a Macedonian church, even though they both co-existed under the Yugoslav federation for over forty-five years.
The real shame is that a great number of Macedonians both in Greece and the Diaspora have reverence for the Greek Church, regularly attending mass, contributing morally and with hard earned dollars. Surely they do this because they believe in the Orthodox Church’s sanctity!
I am sorry to say that they, time and time again, have been deceived. If you forgave them their sins for what they did to the Macedonian people in the past, then I implore you to take a good hard look and judge them for what they have done to the sanctity of your faith. They are not worthy of your devotion!
It is unbecoming for men of the faith at all levels, from Bishop to priest, to be accused of antiquity smuggling, trial-fixing, aiding drug trafficking suspects, embezzlement and the broadcast by private TV stations of wiretaps of sexually explicit telephone conversations involving senior clergy, trysts by bishops, church links to convicted drug smugglers and so on. These are the acts of hard core criminals!
How can the Greek Church preach morality when it has none of its own?
I am beginning to wonder if this is the same Greek Church which, for more than a century has fanatically and adamantly opposed Macedonism, made our lives a living hell!
Is this the same Greek Church which has embodied Greek morality for centuries?
Is this the defender of Hellenism and of Greek culture?
It seems that the mighty have fallen and have lost their way! It is time to purge them from our lives!
The following article was taken from the February 18, 2005 Globe and Mail.
Greek church struggles amid tide of scandal
Blitz of seamy allegations led Archbishop to beg forgiveness
Friday, February 18, 2005
Associated Press (Globe and Mail – Canada)
Athens — Greece's embattled Orthodox Church leader begged the nation for forgiveness Friday after a blitz of allegations ranging from trial-fixing to purported sex escapades battered the church's reputation as guardian of Greek culture and honour.
The apology by Archbishop Christodoulos — made as senior clerics opened an emergency conclave to impose reforms — showed the depth of the crisis for the church and its attempts to regain its footing even as the embarrassing scandals continue to unfold.
Public outrage has reached such a level that some politicians and commentators have suggested stripping the Orthodox Church of its status as the official state religion — a once almost unthinkable proposal in a nation where church and political history are often intertwined.
“I humbly ask for forgiveness from the people and the clerics who, in their majority, honour ... the cassock they wear,” Archbishop Christodoulos said in his opening statement to the church's governing Holy Synod. He called the crisis “particularly grave.”
One bishop, Spyridon, described the scandals as a religious “tsunami.”
The crisis began early this month when a priest was charged with antiquity smuggling and placed under investigation in connection with an alleged trial-fixing ring that aided drug trafficking suspects and others.
Accusations then started coming at a dizzying pace: a senior cleric suspended for suspected embezzlement and the broadcast by private TV stations of wiretaps of sexually explicit telephone conversations allegedly involving senior clergy.
The church is also investigating possible trysts by bishops, including a 91-year-old cleric, after a photo published in an Athens daily allegedly showed him nude in bed with a young woman.
Orthodox priests can marry, but bishops and other senior clergy take vows of celibacy.
“Everyone is asking where it will end,” said theologian Giorgos Moustakis. “It's a monster.”
The intrigue only deepened last week with allegations of possible church links to a convicted drug smuggler who later served as an informant for Greek authorities. The man, whose aliases included Apostolos Pavlos, or Apostle Paul, is also accused of helping influence the 2001 election of the patriarch of Jerusalem. He also reportedly sold armoured cars and other equipment to Greek law enforcement.
The suspect, identified as Apostolos Vavilis, has dropped from sight. Greek authorities say they don't know his whereabouts.
“We are witnessing a crisis in the church,” Culture Minister Fani Palli-Petralia said Thursday after a meeting with the premier. “I believe the church will come out of this crisis stronger. This is a demand by all of us.”
The church is paying heed. On Saturday, the 102-member Holy Synod is expected to approve a series of measures proposed by the archbishop, including greater involvement of civil overseers in the church's financial dealings and “ethical misconduct.”
Seminary students may also lose their exemption from military service — an obligation for nearly every Greek man.
“There is a lot that must be done to put our house in order,” said Archbishop Christodoulos, who easily defeated a no-confidence motion Friday 67-1.
But the church does not seem ready for sweeping leadership changes, which many in the public demand. The scandals are still limited compared with the Roman Catholic abuse scandals, but the sense of betrayal in Greece may cut even deeper.
The Orthodox Church held a rarified position as the perceived caretakers of Greek identity during four centuries of Muslim Ottoman rule that ended in the early 19th century. More recently, opinion polls often placed it among the must trusted institutions and Christodoulos was as popular as a celebrity.
That's changed. Greece's conservative government, supported by the church before winning general elections last March, has distanced itself from the archbishop, who has taken the brunt of public criticism.
A poll published last week in Athens newspapers showed Archbishop Christodoulos' popularity has plummeted from 68 per cent in May to 43 per cent this month. The nationwide telephone poll by the VPRC company of 941 Greek adults did not include a margin of error.
More than 97 per cent of the Greece's 11 million people are baptized Orthodox.
“The current crisis the church is going through is probably the most serious in its modern history,” wrote VPRC managing director, Yiannis Mavris, in the Kathimerini newspaper.
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