BishopAccountability.org
	Other Clergy Should Also Be Defrocked By Theodore Kalmoukos Orthodox Reform September 21, 2007 http://orthodoxreform.org/cases/fr-nicholas-katinas/other-clergy-should-also-be-defrocked/ The defrocking of Rev. Nicholas Katinas, former longtime pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Dallas, which was officially carried out, finally, by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople on July 11, as we reported in the last week's edition, should have been done a year and a half ago, when he was first accused of pedophilia, and which was officially admitted by the Archdiocese. Let us remember for just one minute that the Archbishop himself, during a meeting of the Holy Eparchial Synod, first admitted this issue. Secondly, Assistant Archdiocese Chancellor Rev. Michael Kontogiorgis admitted that Mr. Katinas was accused of sexual abuse with minors during his visit to the Dallas parish, which Mr. Katinas had served for 28 years; and of course, we have the official news releases issued by the Archdiocese itself. Despite all these things, Archbishop Demetrios and Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, for their own reasons, did everything they could, within their capacity, to "save" Mr. Katinas. They were both unsuccessful, and their efforts were in vain, as the final outcome of this whole Katinas issue has proven. Simply put, Demetrios and Isaiah managed to embarrass themselves and damage the reputation of our Church, and the good name of our Greek American community in general, using all kinds of foolish arguments – i.e., there is no difference between priestly suspension and defrocking; that Mr. Katinas was 72 years old; that he has repented and wants to be buried as a priest when he dies – which are indicative of many other things. Now that Mr. Katinas has been defrocked, everyone has lost his voice, including the Archbishop and Metropolitan Isaiah, to such an extent that they did not even have the courage and the sensitivity toward the faithful to issue another news release to provide closure for the matter – though they issued news releases for issues of lesser significance. It doesn't stop there. As a Florida newspaper just reported this past Wednesday, and as we pointed out in our June 30 edition, other clergy at every level and office of priesthood can be expected to follow suit, and must be defrocked immediately – before new scandals place the Church under difficult circumstances again. After all, it's not only the embarrassment of our Church and the good name of our community, it's also a serious financial issue, with millions of dollars in lawsuits looming menacingly. It's unacceptable that the Archdiocese should use revenue from candles and the contributions of our faithful to pay for the pedophiliac and homosexual vices, alleged or otherwise, of clergy. What's going on, for God's sake? On the one hand, we have clergy sex scandals, and on the other, we provide the same clergymen with the huge salaries and benefits they demand, yet we have already started to see church attendance drop. That said, and it needed to be said, we should all still cry out with a loud voice, "Thank God there are so many good and conscientious priests in our Church whom we respect dearly," but who generally remain unknown – while the ones who are more visible are those who pursue public relations, rather than preach the Gospel.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.