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Meanwhile at HCHC:

Are All Things Forgiven in the Resurrection? Archimandrite Bartholomew Mercado Spends First Week of Lent Rebuking Seminarians

The Chaplain at Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology decided to immediately send an email to all seminarians following the conclusion of today’s services, in a blatant attempt to criticize them during Lent, specifically chastising seminarians for their absence from the Divine Liturgy. The email, circulated among students, expressed disappointment and urged those seminarians who were absent from Divine Liturgy to justify their actions by Monday, March 25th, or risk reconsideration of their role as seminarians.

In the spirit of Father Bartholomew’s example of how to mold future priests, we too ask Father Bartholomew to respond by April 1st regarding why a priest of less than five years of ordained priestly ministry and who has no substantial experience as a parish priest or parish administrator, can be justified in not following our Lord’s Commandment to love. Did we not just celebrate the Sunday of Forgiveness?

The e-mail sent by Mercado has already invoked a mixture of astonishment and disapproval within the seminary community. While attendance at religious services is commonly encouraged, the priest’s forceful tone and ultimatum-like demands have raised eyebrows among both students, clergymen, alumni, and benefactors.

One priest in the Denver Metropolis received a copy of this and circulated it among the priests in order to not only bring awareness, but to demand for Father Bartholomew’s reassignment into a parish where he will quickly learn that speaking in such a tone with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will not get him very far with a parish council.

Mercado’s pointed remarks included admonishing those absent without prior authorization, questioning their commitment to the seminary’s mission and their suitability for ordained ministry. He even went so far as to request a separate response from each absentee, demanding a detailed explanation for their absence and a defense of their continued enrollment as seminarians.

Mercado must know this is a futile maneuver and a waste of time. The Metropolitans give their blessings for students to become seminarians. By revoking seminarian status from a student for such petty reasons, Mercado is literally questioning the legitimacy of the “blessing” offered by the Metropolitans. The Metropolitans of the Eparchial Synod will certainly not tolerate a naive and inexperienced priest, such as Mercado, from dictating who they offer their blessings to be a seminarian. Mercado knows this which is why he refuses to even mention that he does not have the backbone to speak with the Metropolitans directly about the progress of the seminarians from within their respective jurisdiction.

While acknowledging that some students had legitimate reasons for their absence, such as prior approval or extenuating circumstances, Mercado’s directive cast a shadow over the seminary’s atmosphere, prompting concerns about the appropriateness of his approach and the potential chilling effect on students’ freedom of conscience. We have even confirmed from multiple sources that Mercado requires every student to submit a letter of request to be absent from Sunday Liturgy if you are not going to be attending in the Chapel.

Of course, seminary officials have remained silent on Mercado’s email and lack of compassion and mercy. Long gone are the days at the HCHC seminary fostering an environment of mutual respect, dialogue, and spiritual growth among students and faculty. It behooves Mercado to go back a week to the Vespers Service held in the Chapel, and remind himself that indeed, ALL things are forgiven in the Resurrection.

In the wake of this incident, questions linger about the appropriate balance between accountability and pastoral care within seminary education and the broader implications for religious authority and personal autonomy within institutional settings.

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Dear Seminarians,

I pray this communication finds you well. It is always a distinct joy and blessing to attend the Divine Liturgy and to receive the Holy Body and Blood of Christ. It nourishes us in body and soul as we traverse the course of the fast and provides us with spiritual strength.

It, therefore, completely and utterly disappointed me this morning when I saw that most seminarians were absent from the Divine Liturgy this morning as we not only celebrated the memory of St. Theodore, but had the opportunity to prayer for departed brothers and sister who have gone before us into eternal rest.

Nothing less is expected of you than your presence at all Divine Liturgies as well as the other Divine Services. It strikes me as strange that the same seminarians who today are absent from their responsibilities to the Church will tomorrow be vested with the responsibility to call others to the Divine Services.

If you feel you have been called to serve the Church in an ordained capacity and you were absent today, then, sadly, you are falling short. I am sending the email to all seminarians regardless if you were in Chapel today or not so that you all receive the same message. To those who were in Chapel, thank you for your continued dedication.

To those who were absent and moreover with no pre-discussed cause (both you and I know who you are), then I would like you to send me a separate email in which you not only explain the reason for your absence, but in which you also explain the reason for which you think you should remain a seminarian. I expect these responses no later than Monday, March 25th by 12:00noon.

I know some of you were absent for good cause (you received my permission to be absent to chant elsewhere or for extenuating circumstances). In this case, you are exempt from the above requirement to provide me with an explanation, but for those who never spoke to me about their absence, I eagerly await your response.

I look forward to seeing you in Chapel tomorrow for the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

With Regards, 
Fr. Bartholomew

It looks like the Archimandrite also needs to come down on them for using ChatGPT. Lazy cheaters! They’ll go far in their “business”. Not only do our illustrious future priests not want to go to church, they don’t even want to exert themselves to complaining about it. What a joke they must be. That’s the old joke, right? If you’re useless you become a priest. Bravo paidi mas! Thanks for proving the timeless wisdom to be true!

Thank you for bringing to light all of these conflicts of interest. But you should bring to light an important accomplice in all of this. Koularmanis and Vergos hatched the plan, but they needed an inside guy to help them get paid. Who was the inside guy? Gary Sideris. He was president of the Community when the Community settled the case with Koularmanis. And Sideris was nominated to handle settlement of the Vergos case. Everyone complains about Inept Nektarios. But the entire Parish Council is inept for allowing Sideris to serve on the Parish Council and to give his wife and daughter hefty salaries for years, the idiot Parish Council voted him as President, they allowed him to settle and pay his “friends” financial settlements and these same morons allow him to continue to collect candle monies and the disko and enter the school as some HANAC representative. Shame on all of these useless Parish Council members. The School is suffering because the Andriotis gang still has a stranglehold on the community and the School. I wonder who is auditing the bank accounts that Betsy Sideris has exclusive control of? Does the insurance department know that Sideris created new EIN numbers to secure health insurance under the school for Sideris’s favorite teachers? Does this priest Stamkopoulos know how to uncover these illegalities? What does Stamkopoulos do all day? Just sits around drinks coffee and collects another salary? GOARCH has installed a bookkeeper to handle the financial records of the community. Did the bookkeeper uncover that fake music lessons were presented to the social services agencies to give Father Nektarios’s friend financial assistance from the government? The theme here is if you commit unethical acts, GOARCH rewards you. I thought Villis wants to clean up the Church’s image. Stop talking the talk and actually do something about it. The Andriotis gang is eating and taking photos laughing at the Community.

To the Excused Seminarian: I have been away from my home parish in the Diocese of Denver for many many years, however, I always hear the stories about the “priests” from HCHC assigned to our church, which was built by immigrants at the turn of the last century. For the past two decades at least, this parish has been through a steady stream of these so-called priests, many of whom have absolutely no idea how to manage their own families let alone an entire church family. These men arrive and are immediately provided a healthy salary, health insurance for them and their families, and many other “perks” which most people who work a minimum of 40 hours a week do not receive. How many hours per week does a priest in a small parish actually work? Holy Week for a priest is the equivalent to a full work week for most Americans; yet priests only have to do a fraction of that each week for the rest of the year. They are allowed vacation time, too! I say this because from what I have experienced and what my family has experienced, GOARCH priests are NOT trained to do much at all when they are assigned to a smaller community. They frequently fall under the influence of one or two families who think they are entitled to “run” the church as they see fit, which leaves everyone else in the community feeling as if they are not as “important”, and eventually, these families either fall away from the church or they lose interest entirely.
These priests are being taught to be youth ministers above all else. When there are elderly or shut-ins, the priest has to be reminded to visit and call upon them, when in fact it is these very elderly people, and the generations before them that built the church they are serving. The priest from the Denver diocese who was so offended by the perfectly reasonable letter from Fr. Mercado ought to re-evaluate his own vocational choices.