By Nick Stamatakis

UPDATE: The fourth priest mentioned at the last part of this article was father Joseph Mirowski, a Vietnam Veteran with two purple hearts… A priest of the Transfiguration Church in Mason City…  More to come soon…

Very disturbing news saw the light of day recently, reported by the new blog www.concernedorthodoxchristians.wordpress.com.  It appears that 3 members of the clergy in the greater Chicago area have died in the last 3 months; they all happened to live in a 70-80 miles radius and they were all middle aged or younger with no apparent health issues!  But they all seem to have shared a tendency to speak out about matters of the Church as our initial reports from Chicago indicate. These reports suggest that they were outspoken against the leadership of Met.Nathanael of Chicago as well as against the leadership of GOA and the Patriarchate… Our information indicates that they were feeding information to the very popular website www.protectingorthodoxchurch.com, which also suddenly stopped functioning in late November!

As we continue to delve into this story let’s take one death at a time:

  • On November 20, 2019 Rev. Fr. George P.Pappas, age 54, priest at SS Constantine and Helen church in Merrillville, Indiana, a populous Greek American community, situated about 30-40 miles south and east of Chicago…
  • A few days ago, on January 17 2020, Rev. Father Michael Richard Vanderhoef, age 47, priest at the Assumption Church of Madison, Wisconsin, located about 40-45 miles north and west of Chicago… He was found dead at a McDonald’s parking lot and Chicago PD is investigating…

Both priests died of “natural causes”, although all reports and indications are that they were in very good health.  Interestingly, it seems that at least the first one was closely connected with the publisher of the very popular blog mentioned above www.protectingorthodoxchurch.com and was cooperating in revealing all kinds of scandals and corruption… A few days before the blog stopped operating Fr.Pappas reported his concerns in an email indicating that he was afraid of their “opponents” in the Church, a possible sign of threats and blackmailing…

The publisher of the above blog, reports indicate, was also a member of the clergy, an idealist who could not stand the corruption within the GOA.  It looks like Fr. George Pappas was one of his many informers.  Suddenly in late November the blog stopped functioning.  A new blog www.concernedorthodoxchristians.wordpress.com has just a few days reported that he also died!!

We should underline that neither death of Rev. Fr. George P.Pappas and Rev. Father Michael Richard Vanderhoef is reported by the National Herald, an extremely unusual occurrence.  More importantly, neither one is memorialized in the official website of the Archdiocese!!

Initial reports indicate that there is one more priest who died recently in Chicago – which will raise the total number of deaths to four! We will keep investigating this story and will post any new information immediately as it becomes available. Meanwhile, as all these deaths suddenly happen, “cool” Met Nathanael enjoys a vacation in Australia with his dear friend Arch.Makarios!! And Arch. Elpidophoros takes a week-long vacation in Hawaii and California, accompanied by Gerasimos of San Fransisco, to escape the cold in New York… The hierarchy of the Church is certainly enjoying the last few days of the Titanic….

January 23, 2020,  n.stamatakis@aol.com

https://www.helleniscope.com/2020/01/23/why-have-there-goa-priests-in-chicago-suddenly-died/