A last minute effort with the early announcement of a $5 million donation by Leadership 100 to the “Friends of St.Nicholas” will cause more trouble than relief as it violates the Fund’s own charter… If this could be done, why didn’t they use Faith and L100 three years ago? Because they are corrupt and they have to go… As the whistleblower told us, “the Archons and the Foundations are nothing but an ATM machine”…
By Nick Stamatakis
The “pillars” of GOA establishment have started committing political suicide one by one. In early December, A. Diamataris, ex-publisher of the National Herald, was forced to resign from his position as an undersecretary of foreign affairs of Greece …in flight to Australia in the middle of several scandals. The whole GOA leadership in chorus lamented the “loss” in statements filled with fake sorrow: the crocodiles in the lagoon had lost their “brother in crime”. And what a loss it was: TNH, under the direction of Diamataris for over 40 years, never once published one word against Karloutsos… Not one word in decades… We are all wondering now, how much TNH “services” cost the Church…
Then, in late January John Catsimatidis, VP of the Archdiocesan Council, was caught on camera misrepresenting the facts in GOA about the ongoing criminal federal investigation and threatening both the whistleblower and the press in a move unacceptable for a person of his status: both as a lay leader of the Church and as an owner of mass media and a radio broadcaster, he literally “blew it”. Arrogant as ever, he repeated his threats last weekend on a front-page and online interview blasted by TNH in both its Greek and English editions. There, led by the always sneaky “theologian”, he started calling names these “lowlifes” bloggers with the “bad reputation”…
Everyone expected the “bloggers” to respond and they did in a powerful way… But very few could imagine that a few days later, Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit will come out in public, after Sunday service, to deal Catsimatidis and the Church establishment a death blow, verifying the accusations about corruption both past and present. He spoke about “cooked books”, he spoke about charging on GOA credit cards their “lunches and vacations”, he spoke about a continuing corrupt state of affairs that hardly resembles a Church of Christ… The GOA establishment was furious but failed to make Metropolitan Nicholas retract his statements. The “cat is now out of the bag”, “Monomakhos’s” sharp pen noted…
Catsimatidis’s position is untenable: In order to protect Fr.Karloutsos, his “koumbaro”, he put aside all logic and all principles, both political and moral, and he demonstrated for all to see his inability for civil behavior… He undermined his own role as a Church leader and, in the process, he killed whatever little chances he had for a successful mayoral campaign. Catsimatidis’ “less than refined” attitude was a known fact among us fellow Greeks in New York: his insistence to have a “Greek music stage” very close to the center of the annual parade on 5th Avenue, blasting bouzouki music even as the national anthems were playing, is the best joke in the Greek circles in NY…
Let’s summarize: Lack of any serious effort for transparency, lack of Christian sensitivity, prioritizing the Archons’ club of the wealthy over everything else, despicable threats against our most basic freedoms, and general lack of civility. Mr. Catsimatidis is not helping in any way to bring “hope” to GOA and he has to go.
The other part of the “Duo”, the “Prince of Darkness” Fr. Karloutsos, is seething with rage these days… Used to having no negative press for decades, he has to survive this phase, when the Feds are coming closer and closer to his abuses, while he is facing a “tsunami of negative publicity”. As I was writing these lines, it was hastily announced that $5 million was donated by Leadership 100 to the “Friends of St.Nicholas”. This donation came as a last resort (when most major private donors refuse to link their names with an ongoing criminal federal investigation), and will raise serious questions, as it violates the Funds’ own charter: It specifically prohibits “capital requests for the planning, construction, renovation or purchase of buildings, or for the acquisition of land”. The questions are enormous: If Catsimatidis and Karloutsos can bend the rules of foundations such as “Faith Endowment” and “Leadership 100” at will, then what stopped them doing so three years ago? Is political expediency or any other administrative manipulation the way to the future for GOA?
Fr.Karloutsos, what exactly do you bring to our Church at this stage? Yes, the wealthy donors will still be donating money when you will have left the Church in disgrace… But then the faithful will also be back filling the pews… We will not be missing you rubbing shoulders with every politician and particularly the most corrupt ones… A bunch of younger Greek Americans with skill and education will happily do it – many of them are already advanced in the political ladder.. The Church survived under numerous US Presidents and even more NY Governors, but it will not survive one more year of cooking the books, abusing the credit cards, hiding the facts, not telling the whole truth, and above all, not acting in the interest of the many but serving the wealthy few.
“Irreplaceable people are those who do not let people replace them”, a proverbial quote says… Fr.Karloutsos, at this moment your presence does not allow AB Elpidophoros to show his true intentions and his abilities – and we have to assume he must have some of both… On the opposite, your presence creates constant tension at all levels and forces all at the top to follow your lead straight to the cliff… Just so that you can say that you ended your career “on a high note”, by finishing St. Nicholas… Fr.Karloutsos, you are seeking the impossible… You will not end you career on a high note – AB Demetrios was acting on the same fallacy and he failed… As a historian of the …future, I can already see that you will not be there at the ceremony of Sept 11, 2021… Your career has already ended in the conscience of all the faithful, on the most miserable note. And this is something that no power on Earth can change…
February 19, 2020, n.stamatakis@aol.com www.helleniscope.com
