Please GOARCH, Please Support the Beggars of TNH, So They Can Stab You In the Back!!

THE BEGGARS OF TNH: “But why punish us? Because we still support the Archbishop, despite his stumbles, with the hope and desire that he will find his footing, even almost three years after his enthronement, for his own good and the good of our Archdiocese?”

By Nick Stamatakis

When I saw the “analysis” (first in Greek a few days ago) by the universally derided for his “hit pieces”, especially against former archbishops and his lack of journalistic standards, TNH “theologian” Theodore Kalmoukos, I truly could not believe my eyes:  The National Herald celebrated its 107th birthday by begging, yes, literally begging, the Archdiocese and the Archbishop personally to buy “their usual two half-page ads” in the special “Pascha Insert”… We are talking about a monetary expense of a few hundred up to about a thousand – dollars and TNH made Kalmoukos spend his time writing a whole editorial…

Every paragraph of this unique, one-of-a-kind, never before seen “analysis” (below) is truly amazing in the information and the nuances it lets out… Where to start?

• “(The Pachal Insert) is a vehicle for the community to support its paper”…  Abundant hypocrisy by Kalmoukos here, who lives in times past… The community, in the time of the internet, has abandoned traditional papers and discovered many ways to the truth that was not served by TNH – Helleniscope among the top ones…
• If I am GOARCH, why should I support TNH?  The right question would be, why I, GOARCH, support only TNH? First I am under a Federal investigation for serious financial abuses and, God knows, I am in dire financial straights. I find a few dollars for …Ukraine but certainly supporting TNH is not a priority for me… If Ukraine is lost, I am going to lose millions of $$ and, in addition, my masters at State Dept. will be very angry…
• If I am GOARCH and if I am AB Elpidophoros I have many extra reasons not to support TNH.  My main internal threat, Karloutsos, is allied with TNH for decades. Please do not doubt me: Go to TNH and do a search of the name “Karloutsos” or “Father Alex” going back 45 years.  There is NOT ONE WORD AGAINST KARLOUTSOS DURING THESE 45 YEARS!!! If you find one please email me immediately!…
• If I am GOARCH and AB Elpidophoros, I am constantly told by everyone that Karloutsos and Kalmoukos – along with the TNH publisher Diamataris – have overthrown with their polemical (and usually unsubstantiated) allegations the previous three archbishops (Iakovos, Spyridon, Demetrios), the first of who was a figure larger than life, the only Archbishop of this Church who is part of American history. In this way, they have caused huge harm to the Greek-American community… If they would stop the war against Iakovos (and if Iakovos showed more realism and less respect for the Constantinople Patriarchate) the Church of America would probably now be a Panorthodox Church!…
• Is this how desperate TNH is? Begging GOARCH for a few hundred dollars? If I had not spent a few years in the offices of the paper (as the main editorial writer) and if I did not know the “family”, I would have many doubts about how they operate.  But I don’t.  For them, this is a business and nothing more.  Concepts such as the “truth”, the “community”, the “Church” etc mean nothing unless money is made… I will refer to only one example: When the whole community was putting up a fight for the issue of the “Name of Macedonia” in the early 1990s, the committee of the Pan-Macedonian Association was about to have what turned out to be a huge rally in Washington DC.  They approached the publisher, Diamataris, and asked him for his contribution in the form of a free ad.  His answer was “NO”!!!  This is what “community” means for TNH!! Making money – instead of supporting – a once-in-a-lifetime historical event!!

I am not here to justify the Archbishop and GOARCH – everyone knows that I am pointing out their mistakes on a weekly basis. But they are not the main issue at this time: the news is the degradation and humiliation of TNH and Kalmoukos who are acting like beggars as the last paragraph of the “analysis” shows: “But why punish us? Because we still support the Archbishop, despite his stumbles, with the hope and desire that he will find his footing, even almost three years after his enthronement, for his own good and the good of our Archdiocese?”

What a shameful end for a (long time ago) glorious past!…

April 14, 2022, n.stamatakis@aol.com   www.helleniscope.com

DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.

BELOW IS KALMOUKOS’S ANALYSIS IN ENGLISH AND IN GREEK

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Analysis: A Question for His Eminence

By Theodore Kalmoukos (April 14, 2022)

As everyone knows, The National Herald twice a year publishes special festive inserts, Christmas and Easter, rich in reading material – but also filled with holiday wishes from associations, organizations, businesses, communities, and friends. It is a beautiful way to mark the Incarnation and now for Pascha – the Resurrection – of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a decades-old tradition, a service to our Community, and at the same time a vehicle for the Community to support its newspaper, especially appreciated during difficult times.

So, when we recently contacted our Holy Archdiocese about this year’s editions, we received an interesting answer from Mr. Stratos Safioleas, Director, Department of Communications of the Archdiocese of America and Senior Advisor to the Archbishop of the Archdiocese – well done with the impressive titles, although he is based – listen, listen! – in Athens!

So Mr. Safioleas’ answer was: “We are placing no ads this Easter, as we are going to send this money from our budget to the GOARCH Ukraine Relief Fund. With many regards.”

In fact, we must admire this response of a representative of the Archdiocese of America.

The Director, Department of Communications of the Archdiocese of America, and Senior Advisor to the Archbishop of the Archdiocese – obviously there is some junior staff there holding down the fort for him so far away from his home in Athens – wanted to punish us in this cute way, probably because we do not idolize him.

At any rate, as we welcome Mr. Safioleas to the Omogenia, we recommend to him and that he make a brief review of the 107-year-old history of The National Herald. We also wish him good luck in his charitable endeavors.

But he would help us, and he would especially help the members of our Church who make their donations so that he can be paid such a lofty salary, if he would enlighten us about the need that is served by the maintenance of a Communications Department of the Archdiocese with offices in New York and Athens, with its paid-in-gold Director, Department of Communications.

Are the congregations of our Archdiocese expanding into Greece – and Turkey – and we do not know about it?
But the issue is certainly not… Safioleas. Not even if the Archdiocese were to support the Omogenia’s newspaper with the offering of Paschal wishes after all.

And you should not think that Pascal Greetings cost thousands. I inform you that the Archdiocese usually just places two half-page ads.

The issue is whether the ‘Chief Communications Director’ of the Archdiocese should be based in Athens, and whether he honors our Archbishop as his representative…but it is still obvious that Mr. Safioleas wants to punish us. Nice.

But why punish us? Because we still support the Archbishop, despite his stumbles, with the hope and desire that he will find his footing, even almost three years after his enthronement, for his own good and the good of our Archdiocese?

Or does our Archbishop believe that the ‘versatile’ Safioleas can play the role of Saint Peter for him, that is, that he holds the keys to the gateway of paradise?

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Οπως όλοι γνωρίζουν, ο «Εθνικός Κήρυκας» δις του έτους εκδίδει ειδικά εορταστικά ένθετα, Χριστούγεννα και Πάσχα, με πλούσια ύλη, αλλά και με ευχές από συλλόγους, οργανισμούς, επιχειρήσεις, κοινότητες, φίλους, ευχόμενοι για την Ενανθρώπιση και τώρα το Πάσχα για την Ανάσταση του Χριστού.

Πρόκειται για μια παράδοση πολλών δεκαετιών, μια υπηρεσία στην Κοινότητά μας και ταυτόχρονα μια υποστήριξη της Κοινότητας στην εφημερίδα της, και μάλιστα σε δύσκολους καιρούς.

Οταν λοιπόν πρόσφατα επικοινωνήσαμε και με την καθ’ ημάς Ιερά Αρχιεπισκοπή, απάντησε ο κύριος Στράτος Σαφιολέας, Διευθυντής του Τμήματος Επικοινωνιών της Αρχιεπισκοπής -μωρέ μπράβο τίτλος- με έδρα -άκουσον-άκουσον- τας Αθήνας.

Η απάντηση, λοιπόν του κ. Σαφιολέα ήταν η εξής: Δεν θα βάλουμε διαφημίσεις το φετινό Πάσχα, καθότι θα στείλουμε αυτά τα χρήματα από τον προϋπολογισμό μας στο Ταμείο Ανακούφισης για την Ουκρανία. Με πολλούς χαιρετισμούς.

Μάλιστα. Θαυμάστε απάντηση εκπροσώπου της Αρχιεπισκοπής Αμερικής.

Ο κύριος «Διευθυντής του Τμήματος Επικοινωνιών της Αρχιεπισκοπής» -προφανώς θα υπάρχει και κατώτερο προσωπικό- θέλησε με αυτό τον… χαριτωμένο τρόπο να μας… τιμωρήσει μάλλον γιατί δεν τον προσκυνούμε.

Καλωσορίζουμε τον κ. Σαφιολέα στην Ομογένεια, του συστήνουμε να κάνει μια σύντομη ανασκόπηση της 107ης ιστορίας του «Εθνικού Κήρυκα» και του ευχόμαστε καλή επιτυχία στο φιλανθρωπικό του έργο.

Θα μας βοηθούσε όμως και κυρίως θα βοηθούσε τα μέλη της Εκκλησίας μας που πληρώνουν τον οβολό τους για να χρυσοπληρώνεται αυτός, να μας φωτίσει για την ανάγκη που εξυπηρετεί η διατήρηση Τμήματος Επικοινωνιών της Αρχιεπισκοπής και γραφείο στην Αθήνα με χρυσοπληρωμένο «Διευθυντή του Τμήματος Επικοινωνιών» της.

Μήπως άραγε το πλήρωμα της Αρχιεπισκοπής μας επεκτείνεται στην Ελλάδα -και την Τουρκία- και δεν το γνωρίζουμε;

Το θέμα όμως δεν είναι βέβαια ο… Σαφιολέας.

Ούτε αν η Αρχιεπισκοπή θα ευχηθεί διά μέσου της εφημερίδας στην Ομογένεια και θα στηρίξει την εφημερίδα, με την καταχώριση Πασχαλινών ευχών.

Και για να μην νομίζει κανείς ότι πρόκειται για χιλιάδες δολαρίων για τις Πασχαλινές ευχές, σας γνωστοποιώ ότι η Αρχιεπισκοπή βάζει δύο μισοσέλιδα.

Το θέμα είναι αν ο κύριος Διευθυντής Επικοινωνιών της Αρχιεπισκοπής πρέπει να έχει βάση την Αθήνα κι αν ως εκπρόσωπός του τιμά τον Αρχιεπίσκοπό μας.

Κι ακόμα είναι ολοφάνερη η επιθυμία του κ. Σαφιολέα να μας τιμωρήσει. Ωραία.

Να μας τιμωρήσει όμως γιατί; Ισως γιατί στηρίζουμε, ακόμα, τον Αρχιεπίσκοπο, παρά τα παραπατήματά του, με την ευχή και την ελπίδα ότι θα βρει τον βηματισμό του, έστω σχεδόν τρία χρόνια μετά την ενθρόνισή του, για το καλό του και το καλό της Αρχιεπισκοπής μας;

Ή μήπως ο Αρχιεπίσκοπός μας πιστεύει ότι ο πολυπράγμων Σαφιολέας μπορεί να παίξει τον ρόλο του Αγίου Πέτρου, ότι κρατάει δηλαδή τα κλειδιά του παραδείσου;