The Patriarch’s Room: Continued

Several months ago, a correspondent sent Yours Truly an article about a documentary entitled The Patriarch’s Room. It was created by an Israeli filmmaker who told the story of the former Patriarch of Jerusalem, Ireneus III.

Long story short, it described what was a miscarriage of justice, in which the former patriarch was stripped of his title and sentenced to incarceration in a room. His supposed crime was selling church property to Israeli citizens, most likely extreme right settlers who wished to build more settlements on Palestinian lands.

He was replaced by Theophilus III (a nephew of one-time CIA director George Tenet). Well, now it seems that the incumbent has been caught doing the same, only this time, the land sales are more egregious and blatant.

Rather than bore you with the details, you can read them for yourself below. (Special thanks to Gail Sheppard for providing me this link.)

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/premium-1.816980 .

Now what does this mean in the grand scheme of things? I’m not sure that we’ll ever know the full extent of the corruption but we can make some reasonable assertions. For one thing, the See of Jerusalem is for all practical purposes a dependency of the Phanar. Like Alexandria, it is technically an autocephalous Orthodox church but it’s long been an open secret that it has no real autonomy.

Because of this fact, its hierarchy does nothing without the permission of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Let us speculate: are they selling these properties to international Zionist consortiums in order to raise badly needed funds? This would make sense given the parlous financial state of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Or it could be part of a broader political game. It’s little known (for instance) that Jared Kushner –President Trump’s son-in-law–is heavily invested in Israeli real estate. Particularly in building illegal settlements on the West Bank, land officially set aside for a future Palestinian state.

I grant you, either of these possibilities may be a stretch but the fact of the matter is that Theophilos III is getting away with things that caused the downfall of his predecessor.

Something doesn’t pass the smell test. More information will follow in due time no doubt.

Comments

  1. Monk James says

    It has always seemed to me that Patriarch Eirenaios was framed, and that his successor, Patriarch Theophilos., was somehow compromised and perhaps blackmailed into his real estate deals with the Israelis. Maybe even his election was due to such pressures.

    In any event, local Orthodox Christians — mostly Arabic-speaking people — are more convinced than ever that their hellenic overlords are not acting in their best interest, all the hard work of Bp Atallah (Theodore) Hanna notwithstanding.

    Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself quoted an ancient proverb to say that ‘no prophet is believed in his own home town’.

  2. Tim R. Mortiss says

    Here we go again: “international Zionist consortiums”.

    Are those the dread guys in the parades with the small motorcycles and the red fezzes?

    • Thank you, George, for not tiptoeing. This is an elephant in the room.

      “International Zionist consortiums” belong to the those who wrote, financed and otherwise advanced the bolshevik coup in Russia AND the ‘progressive’ revolutionary activity continuing here in the West.

      Humor me for a moment: do some here still think this is just some nutty conspiracy?

      Like Soros and friends, it was the Warburgs and Jacob Schiff who furthered Marx and Engles’ political ‘utopia’ brutally attacking traditional Christian values and culture. Lenin, Trotsky, the Rothschilds, German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann, Baron Gisbert von Romberg the German minister in Switzerland, Eduard Bernstein the German Social Democrat, etc. etc.

      Solzhenitsyn wrote something on the matter remaining, curiously, unpublished and untranslated into English: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/25/russia.books

      Anyway, politics can make for unseemly company.

      I’m not the biggest Ann Coulter fan, but she does have a point here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1EAjeNuGOw

    • Joseph Lipper says

      Shriners are probably not usually Zionists in the conventional sense. There seems to be a lot of Islamic terminology used in the Shriner ritual:

      https://sayyidamiruddin.com/2011/08/26/shriner/

      Only those who hold the Master Mason degree in Freemasonry qualify and are invited to join the Shrine.

      Shriner’s Traveling Card

      The Shriner’s traveling card reads: “In the Name of Allah, Merciful, and Compassionate. I desire to visit a Temple or Shrine in many cities. He is a good man, patient, cultural of sterling worth. There is no conqueror but Allah. Authorized with power by the Imperial Council Ancient Arabic Order Lodges of The Mystic Shrine. Witness the deputy and representative of temples in the East. Mohammed traveled from Mecca in the South to the North in Medina. Please Allah, we shall travel everywhere in safety. Small things influence great. Do not travel in the heat of the day. Travel with your eyes and ears open. By the grace of Allah, we have found repentance. Politeness is small solver. Action is power. Everything is from Allah. There is no deity, but Allah”. [The Pyramid: A horn of the Price Hall Family of Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of North and South America and its Jurisdiction, Inc. (Fourth Quarter Vol. Number 52-Issue No. 196, 1993), p. 6.]

      • Tim R. Mortiss says

        Yes, of course, the guys with the fezzes and small motorcycles are Freemasons, not Zionists. Sorry, wrong conspiracy!

  3. Fr. Harry Linsinbigler says

    George, the constant “ties” to “the Phanar” don’t hold weight. Alexandria does things constantly that make Constantinople wince, and the latter can’t do a thing about it. Although Constantinople still refers to the Patriarch of Jerusalem as “His Beatitude” (which is fine–Beatitude and Holiness were interchangeable not long ago), the Patriarch of Jerusalem officially on the website (if not now, at least a year ago) was referred to by his own Synod as “His Holiness”, and Constantinople can’t do a thing about it. Furthermore, Jerusalem is under the old Julian Calendar, something Constantinople would rather amend. Years ago, when this thing with Irenaeios came about, and Jerusalem wanted them to rule on it, instead Constantinople called a synaxis to decide. Evidence must guide the narrative, but it seems to me that sometimes, here, it is the other way around.

  4. After reading the link, the first question we must ask, is why they sold the properties for ridiculously low prices? Who are unknown buyers? This does stink, and worst of all this money has and won’t do a thing to relieve the money issues we see in New York. Fire sales like these usually means someone has their boot on us.

    Again why and who? Pray, pay, and obey is ok, trust your leaders, they know what’s best. Again and again,until the majority, not the minority, become true stewards of our church, become involve in volunteerism, and truly tithe, we will continue to get what we deserve! These bishops are a reflection upon us. Lord have mercy!

    • George Michalopulos says

      Dino, I think you hit the nail on the head: “someone” most probably does have “their boot on” our necks. If these fire-sale prices are taking place, it may mean that the GOA financial situation is worse than we thought.

  5. It is best to draw bright lines where they can be drawn. So we should side with Palestinian Orthodox Christians’ best interests first and foremost in all of this hullaballoo. Notice I did not say their own “perceived best interests”. The two might not be one and the same.

    When it comes to Israelis vs. Muslim Palestinians, I’ll take the Israelis 10 times out of ten, hands down. Whatever Muslims here in America may or may not have openly cheered on 9/11, it is a well documented fact that Palestinian Muslims were elated and Arafat had to calm them down. They were handing out candy.

    Palestinian Muslims are among the worst enemies of Christ. Unfortunately, sometimes some Palestinian Christians succumb to Stockholm Syndrome. Others I’m sure are more clear headed.

    Beyond that, it’s a mixed bag. Jerusalem is Old Calendar, to their credit. They seem to be on board with the fiasco at Crete, though it’s hard to say since they tend to keep their heads low.

    They used to have some parishes over here but they got absorbed by the Phanar who then double dealt and forced them to convert to the New Calendar. I sympathize with them to some extent but it is a very rough and tumble world over there. I assume the Qatar thing is still up in the air.

    God is separating the wheat from the chafe and I try to make an effort not to presume where any given local church will land in this windstorm. For example, I pray that Antioch lands on the side of tradition notwithstanding the Schmemannism some of its clergy inherited from SVS.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Well, Misha, anytime you have to draw “bright lines” should give you pause. It means you don’t know enough to give a considered opinion.

  6. Velas Kofteros says

    Why are you freaks so upset your bogus church in Jerusalem gets spat upon? Do you think Holy America will tolerate this? In February 8, 1993, The other patriarchs decided to temporarily suspend relations with the Jerusalem Patriarch and dismiss two bishops who acted as his deputies and defrock five priests for challenging the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch. Yet in April, 1990 Diodoros tried swindled Russian Jewish settlers by having Mardos Matossian sell them lands he was not allowed to sell and then denying their claim. Irineos wrote Arafat on July 17, 2001, stating, “You are aware of the sentiments of disgust and disrespect that all the Holy Sepulchre fathers are feeling for the descendants of the crucifiers of our Lord… actual crucifiers of your people, Sionists Jewish conquerors of the Holy Land of Palestine.” May 3, 2003 Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens was recorded blaming Jews in very stern terms for Jesus crucifixion. Yo, Pontius Pilate, it was Romiosini that slew Jesus and stole his religion! It is slander to deny that Jews forgive as can be seen in the 613 mitzvot and the Tefila Zaka. If the Jews can’t have Jerusalem, why should Greece be trusted with the Elgin Marbles? Maybe Athens should be an international city under the UN because those islamosoviet goons living there would destory the treasures of western civilization? If you want to force your phony Palestinians on the Lord’s People, then why not have some boko haram crawling out of your every crevice.