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A Letter from Michael Cantonis to Archbishop Demetrios

MICHAEL G. CANTONIS
1650 Seabreeze Drive
Tarpon Springs, Fl. 34689

June 30, 2000

His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios
Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America
10 E. 79th Street
New York, NY 10021

Your Eminence:

The latest offer of His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew through our Archdiocese in the form of an allowance for Archbishop Spyridon is unacceptable. Are you giving this allowance as charity? If this decision was made on the advice of some of the Patriarchal Friends, I regret to say that these people are not an asset to our Church.

You know what an allowance is, Your Eminence. An allowance is not a pension. A father gives allowances to his children, and if for any reason he does not like something that his children do, he can threaten his children to behave according to his wishes, or cut off their allowances. Is this what the church has in mind? To control and dictate Archbishop Spyridon's life? To live in fear that this so-called allowance will be cut off for any kind of an excuse? To live under a dictatorial state? Is this democratic? Is this justice? Is it fair? Is it human? Isn't this a violation of his human rights? Above all, is it Christian? Why does the Church continue to humiliate and torture the man?

Who can believe that this allowance will be for a lifetime with no strings attached? If this offer is honest and will last his lifetime without conditions, why not give him his pension, especially when the Executive Committee has made provisions for funding it without any cost to the Archdiocese.

Is it possible that this "generosity" on the part of the Church for the allowance is intended to blind us? I believe your advisors think that they are smart and everybody else is stupid.

Archbishop Spyridon was forced into retirement to satisfy the "Patriarchal Friends" against the wishes of 95% of the Greek Orthodox flock of America. He was made promises as part of the "deal" to resign, and none of those promises were kept. Have our religious leaders lost their credibility? Instead, they demoted Archbishop Spyridon to Metropolitan of an non-existing metropolis against the Canons of Orthodox Christianity, and instead of the pension that they promised him, they tossed him to the street like a rag. All this after 31 years of honorable and dedicated service to the Church.

Your Eminence, where is the love, forgiveness, humility, and tolerance of Our Lord? Our Lord did not practice hypocrisy, hatred or vindictiveness, even against the ones that crucified Him. Why this un-Christian behavior against Archbishop Spyridon? What crime did he commit against the Church? The only one that I know of is that in order to clean up the mess he inherited, he went against some Patriarchal Friends who, like a monster octopus, have been suffocating the health and progress of the Archdiocese, its institutions, and all for the sake of their vanity, lust of power and financial benefit. I am sorry to say that when His All Holiness "wakes up" to what is going on in our Church of America, it may be too late.

It is with great pain in my heart that I write this letter, but I fell it is my duty to express and reveal what I believe has been going on.


With love and respect,
MICHAEL G. CANTONIS
MGC:SC

CC: Executive Committee Members

[ Orthodox Truth | www.orthodox-truth.bugs3.com/art_22.html  -  June 30, 2000 ]