By Nick Stamatakis
This is probably the sixth time in six months that we are hearing Michael Psarros trying to defend the indefensible regarding the sordid story of St. Nicholas, with one more “exclusive” interview to TNH. He seems to believe that he is dealing with idiots who forget instantly the truths that were in plain sight just a couple of months ago… We, the faithful, must have given him the impression that we will buy anything coming out of his mouth, dressed as “fact”… And so he keeps pressing the same false statements every time… So let’s remind Psarros the real facts:
- St. Nicholas is still under federal investigation – and if you forget this you are missing the whole story. The federal investigation has two legs, one about GOA and the other about St. Nicholas. Recently, it appears that it developed a third leg, regarding Astoria, mostly because of ALMA’s (Bank and Realty) suspicious dealings with GOA and its parishes and the multiple conflicts of interest, but the practical effects of this remain to be seen…
- Psarros keeps stressing that “this is not a Goya fundraiser” and that supposedly the “fat cats” took care of the bulk of the $86 million raised. But he conveniently forgets that the $7-8 million initially raised by the Philoptochos and the faithful were enough to finish St.Nicholas if the money had not …miraculously disappeared and the costs had not been bloated (and that’s a real…”thavma”)... It’s truly disgusting that Psarros adds insult to injury underlining that “numbers by their nature allow no lies.”, implying that the people paid only a small amount…. Numbers do not lie but people do… and it is a big lie to suggest that people did not contribute enough. People lost trust in ALL the Church leaders – and especially Karloutsos… You cannot keep hiding behind your finger forever… How can anyone trust someone like Karloutsos knowing that it was the Church who made him (and his family) a multi-millionaire… His salary does not justify his riches. And he lacks the dignity to submit his resignation… If he wanted to be wealthy he could start any business and not do it on the back of the Church. The Church of Christ should have never become a vehicle for personal enrichment. Why should anyone give ANY money knowing these simple facts?
- The faithful are still waiting for answers about the missing funds and they never believed the PWC report. This is the same audit report that never told where the missing money went, the one report where the contractor (Skanska) and the director never took part of (Papadatos and Demetriou, the two most important people)… The same PWC report that provided no detailed accounting as promised and at the end it said it could not confirm the findings! The same audit report that stated no illegal activity, but after it came out with that statement the two central figures above were arrested!
- If Psarros wanted to present the truth he should have taken an “exclusive” look at TNH’s publications before Arch.Demetrios was forced to resign. There he could see all the malfeasance graphically described… The faithful are still waiting to find answers. Did Pat. Bartholomew take some of the raised funds as part of his payment for the Ukrainian “Cacocephaly” (sorry, but this new term has replaced “Autocephaly” in our vocabulary)? How much was Karloutsos’ “fundraising fee” and why is not reported?
- Does Psarros realize that the “donations” from the “Funds” of Leadership 100 and Faith are in violation of their charters? Does he think that the Feds are not looking into this?
- Why does the (now required) operating fund – supposedly guaranteeing the operation of the Shrine after it will open – has suddenly jumped to $20 million? It was $3 million a few weeks ago… The numbers do not lie, but they are definitely manipulated…
Finally, let me return to the question of the title: What is Psarros drinking? Is it the elixir of “painful memory elimination”? It seems so… It may be working for him but not for the rest of the faithful… He is not convincing anyone. Above all, he is not convincing St.Nicholas who will be performing many more miracles in order to not have his own memory desecrated!…
July 22, 2020, n.stamatakis@aol.com www.helleniscope.com
