Comments Posted By Geo Michalopulos
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First Rule of Holes: When You’re in One, Stop Digging
I disagree Rod. I very much believe syosset would put out a CYA letter (in Peter P’s phraseology). These guys aren’t that bright. I’ve got some institutional memory of the OCA and know that they when things get bad they form a circular firing squad. All you gotta do is dredge up the old Kondratick affair. They pressed charges against him, spent $500K in legal fees and then wound up paying him $250K in damages. How smart is THAT?
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 11:44 am
Where’d you come up with that? I’ve heard of no such thing.
People, we’re forgetting one salient point: this priest was never under the omorphor of Jonah!
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 11:41 am
I rather like that idea. How about this one: that His Beatitude call an ecclesiastical court and that twelve bishops from various jurisdictions serve as magistrates? Clearly this is uncanonical from soup to nuts. Jonah’s resignation is likewise null and void, given the fact that it was discussed by a clandestine gathering of bishops without his presence and he was forced to write the resignation letter under duress.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 9:09 am
Harry, I agree with you. But when our local bishops act in such an egregious (and uncanonical and immoral manner) don’t you see the scandal of it all? People are leaving the OCA right now as we speak. And all because of this. When it becomes clear that the primatial cathedral of the Archdiocese of Washington has become homophilic in its preachment and praxis, then many more people will leave.
I love an American church, I want an American church, but I don’t want that church to succumb to the spirit of the age. Because if it does, then it won’t be a “church” in the Christian sense, but a congregation that is hunky-dory with whatever fad springs forth from the mouths of over-educated PhDs who use words like “hermeneutics.” It’s that simple.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 18, 2012 @ 10:13 pm
The Lavender Mafia: Just a Conspiracy Theory?
Rev Deacon, I responded hastily (but correctly IMHO) earlier to your request that I should concentrate my fire on these gay cabals. Would you permit me to disagree? I am just a layman in the Church. It is the duty of the bishops to teach, preach, admonish, and discipline. Instead, I ask you to direct this request to them.
As for myself, I will continue to comment on those things which Monomakhos is famous for: religion, culture, and politics, offering reasoned analysis and opinion if necessary.
If the bishops are more interested in stabbing their primate in the back rather than engaging the culture, then we are truly lost. We will have to rely on the Roman Catholic hierarchy and any other Christian denominations which choose to remain stalwart and unafraid.
Shame on us.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 18, 2012 @ 10:07 pm
Fr Basil, I stand corrected. Please read Greg Gerassimon’s reply below. I believe this will expose the vacuousness of this specific charge against His Beatitude.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 8:15 pm
Ouch! I take it all back. We need a Sex Czar poste-haste! Just make sure he’s allowed to go after bishops!
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 8:13 pm
Jesse, the more this drags on, the more it begins to unravel. You, Mr Gerassimon, and others have proved to me that I chose the right title for this blog entry. One of the essential mistakes of this misbegotten letter is that there is so much opacity there that a careful analysis can unravel it.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 8:05 pm
Mr Gerassimon, thank you for pointing out yet more glaring inconsistencies in this “hit-job” of a letter.
It looks like the house of cards continues to crumble.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 8:00 pm
Fr Oliver, I accept that life is difficult and that leaders have to make prudential decisions on how to best navigate through life’s many minefields. But you know, sometimes it’s best to just take the Metropolitan Philip approach on certain matters, esp regarding this issue: “We do not discuss abominations in our archdiocese.”
Does that mean that he’ll lose some support? That’ he’ll piss people off? That he’ll have to hurt somebody’s feeling? Yeah. But the alternative is to accept the corrosive effects of this sin into the Church.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 4:20 pm
Timing is everthing here folks. The military regularly takes in marginal men who have no place else to go. You all are assuming that Jonah bent over backwards for this guy. Based on what I know, that’s nowhere in evidence.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 2:01 pm
Quite possibly, you’re right Deacon. Still, it appears normal ecclesiastical procedures were not followed in his “break” with them. The appearance of schism is there.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 10:29 am
Fr Basil, I must be referring to an SLI in an alternate universe, one in which people who have alleged administrative deficiences get things squared away. It happens all the time in the corporate world.
Silly me!
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 10:26 am
Good question, Rod. The trouble, nobody follows the canons, only when they want to. There are credible allegations (including an arrest record) for a bishop on the synod. Where were the canons then?
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 10:21 am
Chris, I can’t believe that as a lawyer, you couldn’t see through the holes in this hatchet job. Sorry, meant no offense but this letter was a desperation measure.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 9:38 am
Rod, you’re wrong. If what Bp Matthias reports is true, then he has the duty to summon an ecclesiastical court to try the charges. Then, only after HB is adjudged guilty, can he be “kicked out.”
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 9:36 am
Because they didn’t know what they were doing. This was a by-the-seat-of-their-pants operation conducted in secret with people who believe each other’s press clippings. They though Jonah would be gone after Santa Fe and with each of his strategic retreats, they got more desperate to come up with things. Now with the release of Matthias’ letter, they really screwed the pooch.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 9:17 am
Fr Basil, demanding that the Metropolitan check himself into an insane asylum that deals with clerical pedophiles can in no rational way be viewed as bishops “trying to work with him.” This is sovietology, not conciliarity. Because you are unable to make this distinction, I have to question everything you have subsequently written.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 9:12 am
As I understand it, Fr Dioynisios was Bp Melchisedek’s spiritual father and never received a blessing from him to leave. Am I wrong about this? I have several ecclesiastical documents in Greek attesting to this fact.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 17, 2012 @ 8:42 am
Chris, that’s what the Sex Czar was going to be for. To go after Traditionalist and Conservative priests who spoke out against decadence. I know it’s counter-intuitive but that’s how it was done in the other confessions.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 7:58 pm
So I guess you’re the authority. BTW, I was wondering when you were going to start pontificating on this blog again.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 7:56 pm
Carl, what exactly has His Beatitude said since the resignation. Just one word Carl. One.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 7:27 pm
For the record, just where are disgraced priests supposed to go? They’re supposed to go to monasteries.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 7:25 pm
Sasha, that’s not the issue at all. The issue is that they did not follow proper protocols and put out this quite possibly defamatory letter against any sane legal advice.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 7:09 pm
Rod, some people certainly want to get to the “bottom” of things.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 7:08 pm
That is slanderous. Jonah was not the perpetrator, Sandusky was.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 6:28 pm
Rod, even though I agree with you in the main, and even though there are holes in the official story (thanks for pointing some of them out), the ends don’t justify the means. The Synod had a duty and an obligation to bring Jonah up on formal charges and convene a formal ecclesiastical court. They did not do this. Instead, they went on a fishing expedition until they found something that could plausibly stick.
These are not honorable actions. And the letter itself is a horrible attempt to CYA. The blowback against them must have been worse than even I feared. This was a stupid move and makes them civilly liable for damages. At the very least it’s defamatory.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 6:26 pm
What’s sad here is that the blowback from their botched execution is so severe that they have to do something absolutely dunderheaded like put this one-sided letter out. don’t these bozos realize the legal implications?
Oh well, they just signed the death certificate for the OCA.
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 6:19 pm
I wish I could say I was
» Posted By geo michalopulos On July 16, 2012 @ 9:23 am
This is Far From Over: One Week Ago Today
«« Back To Stats PageAndjelica, nobody here is defending adultery. Although since you condemned sodomy, I’m sure that won’t put you in good stead with the Tolerance Mafia. I wonder how Jillions and Kishkovsky are going to answer their overlords about their signing the petition right under Jonah’s name?
I imagine it’ll go something like this: “But we had to do it master, the natives were getting restless and besides, it allowed us the cover to stab Jonah in the back.”
» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On July 15, 2012 @ 4:41 pm
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