Archbishop Leonty (+1971) and the Greek Old Calendarists [part 7]
(Continue from here)
The Initial Reactions to Archbishop Leonty and his Consecrations
The news of the re-establishment of the Hierarchy of the Genuine Orthodox of Greece with the consecrations performed by Archbishop Leonty spread rapidly and was enthusiastically welcomed by the Orthodox to whom it became known. In a letter from Komnios on July 25th to the Heraklion branch [of the P.T.E.O.K.] in Crete, we read: “The past period was consumed with efforts to constitute our leadership. God was well pleased, and after many efforts, an Orthodox Russian Archbishop from South America came, who, together with our own shepherd Akakios, consecrated five other bishops, and thus we now have a Holy Synod consisting of six (6) canonical bishops.” [1]
From late July onwards, the domestic press (ecclesiastical and political) began to publish information about the consecrations (not entirely accurately, in terms of details). However, these publications were not always positive or even neutral. While one would expect negative criticism to come from the external enemies of our Church, namely the New Calendarists and the Matthewites, the greatest conflict was initiated and orchestrated by the former member of the Ecclesiastical Committee [2], Archimandrite Kalliopios Giannakoulopoulos, a quarrelsome and troublemaking figure, whose actions provoked holy indignation due to the lies, slander, and deceitful means he used.
Embittered by the failure of his previous attempt to be consecrated bishop, Father Kalliopios, secretly from his associates, began to act in opposition to the Ecclesiastical Committee, from which he was removed, and he proceeded to establish a small group (essentially a parasynagogue) under the pretentious and misleading name, “Greek Church of the G.O.C.”
From the pages of his magazine “Orthodox Observer” he had, since the end of 1960, launched a fierce polemic against the consecration of Bishop Akakios of Talantion. However, for the new consecrations, his polemics exceeded all limits.
Initially, in collaboration with the New Calendarist newspaper "Týpos Ellinikós – Orthódoxos” (“Press Greek-Orthodox”), [3] with which they had collaborated in the past against the episcopacy of Bishop Akakios of Talantion, they attempted to tarnish the consecrations, on the one hand, characterizing them arbitrarily and without evidence as “Simonical” and on the other hand, believing that these consecrations supposedly took place with the financial support of the Soviet Embassy in Athens… “in order to infiltrate religious people with Soviet ideology!” [4]
The wretched polemics of Fr. Kalliopios continued in the next issue, where the Church of the Genuine Orthodox is characterized as a “Slavic ecclesiastical protectorate” and Archbishop Leonty is labeled as a “Latinophile.” [5] On June 21st, he even sent a rude letter to Metropolitan Anastasy of the ROCOR (as a continuation of another letter from April 19th against Bishop Akakios of Talantion) [6], initially accusing him by writing:
"…you have sent a few days ago a your Bishop who being entered clandestinly in the Greek territory has proceeded together with the false Bishop Acacio with the ordination of four new Bishops!
Tell him that: The great newspaper “Typos” – Orthodox – Ellinikos, the public opinion, the genuine Orthodox Christians as well as our Church, they consider you as defendants for the following irregular and antihellenic actions:
1) Charged with racialism and haters of Greeks with the perspective and the hope to establish in our country a protectorate of the Panslavism…
2) Charged with Simonia following to the confession of the ordinated that they have spent over US$10,000 for apparently “Gifts for the High Priests”.
3) For false assurances and fraud
4) You are accused for transgression of the Holy Rules…
5) You are charged with Cheating the God [text unclear]…
6. You are charged with unvoluntary culpability in helping the pro-communists in Greece." [7]
[All
mistakes and errors in the original English.]
It is known that Metropolitan Anastasy had no knowledge of the actions of Archbishop Leonty, who, out of love and only for true Orthodoxy (as he always did everywhere), assisted the Greek strugglers. Therefore, it is easy to imagine how much this letter disturbed Metropolitan Anastasy, leading him to bring Archbishop Leonty before a synodal tribunal, as we will see below. Of course, the accusations of Fr. Kalliopios had no basis (which is why he did not provide any evidence) but were the offspring of his unfortunately envious imagination. [8]
On July 17th, Fr. Kalliopios sent a letter to Fr. George Grabbe, in which he wrote, with extreme arrogance [“in the style of a thousand cardinals”], the following, among other things:
"Who is this Leontios? Is He a Bishop of Yours? And how is he coming in our Country without take instructions fron your synod?
In any way, Father George, This what is troubling us and creates irregularities, is that your Church, as long as She is protesting, did not keep a good and honest standing. With this standing of her, you ceated five unable and uninstructed Bishops, producing scandals…
We will wait a full explanation concerning the Bishop Leontios, so long with a decision of your Synod and in general about the all matter." [9]
[All
mistakes and errors in the original English.]
The polemics of Fr. Kalliopios was adopted by both the New Calendarists and the Matthewites, who could not recover from the shock they experienced with these consecrations. This was because, in February 1962, when Bishop Akakios of Talantion fell seriously ill, they believed that with his impending death, the Church of the Genuine Orthodox would be orphaned once again, and its thousands of faithful might be forced to defect to their ranks.
But God, through Archbishop Leonty, overturned their hopes, and this was something they could not stomach. Along with the "Typos," the magazine of the Matthewites, called "Herald of the Orthodox Church", began to publish articles against the consecrations, and this collusion between the New Calendarists and the Matthewites was directed by Kalliopios.
Sample from the journalistic unholy alliance of innovators, schismatics and parasynagogues against the Church of the True Orthodox.
The protosyncellus of the Matthewites, Eugenios Tombros (who, like Fr. Kalliopios, was a fan of the schismatic bishop Matthew of Bresthena [10] of the infamous Keratea Monastery), did not hesitate to write that the consecrations of Archbishop Leonty were “the work of Satan"!!! [11] And the "Typos," continuing its demonic warfare, committed a terrible blunder that it has not had the decency to retract until today (almost sixty years later). They falsely accused Archbishop Leonty of being married and the father of three children… This slander is still repeated by the Matthewites even in our time, although it is unquestionably refuted by the biographical details of Archbishop Leonty. In their furious effort to disgrace his venerable person, the slanderers did not bother to obtain accurate information and fell into confusion, equating Archbishop Leonty Filipovitch of ROCOR with Metropolitan Leonty Turkevich of the "Metropolia" [now the OCA], who was indeed a married priest with children, but after the repose of his wife, became a monk and was subsequently consecrated a bishop.
The Synod of the Genuine Orthodox of Greece not only did not take into account the accusations against Archbishop Leonty, but also in an official synodal letter to him, declared, for the second time, that they "will not cease to consider Your Eminence a corresponding member of our Holy Synod, an elder spiritual brother, adviser, guide in our activities, and a Spiritual Father.” [12]
NOTES
1. Archive of Constantine Komnios.
2.
The elected Ecclesiastical Committee (1955-1960), consisting of elected clergy,
was the provisional body that governed the Church of the G.O.C. from the repose
of St. Chrysostomos of Florina (1955) until the ordination of Fr. Akakios
Pappas (1960), after which it was replaced by the Bishop’s Council (1960-1962).
3.
It was later renamed “Orthodoxos Typos” (“Orthodox Press”). Fr.
Kalliopios would funnel information, reflecting his distorted perceptions, to
this newspaper and then present them in “Orthodox Observer” as reprints from
the “great newspaper Typos”…
4.
"Orthodox Observer" (nos. 5-6, May-June 1962) and "Press Greek-Orthodox" (no. 17-18, May-June 1962).
5.
"Orthodox Observer" (nos. 7-8, Jul.-Aug. 1962).
6.
Which, like other letters, he communicated to the new calendar Churches of the
Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Archdiocese of America and the Church of
Greece, as well as to the Ministries of the Interior, and of Education and
Religious Affairs (that is, the two Ministries that were responsible for the
great persecution against the Old Calendarists in 1951-52)!
7.
ROCOR Archives.
8.
With similar fantasies, two and half decades later, he proposed the “deposition”
of Metropolitan Cyprian Koutsoumbas when he had been appointed as an
investigator, and by then a Bishop consecrated by those he considered “Simoniacs”
and “Latin-minded.” He had also been appointed as an investigator (together
with his subordinate Kallinikos Sarantopoulos) in the case of the “deposition”
of Archbishop Auxentios, the result of a well-planned trap...
9.
ROCOR Archives.
10.
Regarding the schismatic Matthew Karpathakis, see here:
krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2014/08/blog-post_40.html and here:
krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2014/09/blog-post.html.
11.
"Herald of the Orthodox Church" (no. 11-12, August-September 1962).
12.
Letter dated August 22, 1962.
[Be continued]
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