Synod dismisses claims against Athanasios

By Jean Christou

ALLEGATIONS of immorality against Limassol Bishopric candidate Abbot Athanasios of Machairas are unfounded, the Holy Synod concluded yesterday.

However, the supreme Church body said there was scope for further investigation against elder Iosif of the Greek Monastery of Vatopedhi.

Iosif is accused of ‘molesting’ and ‘infecting’ seven Paphos nuns 17 years ago when he was in Cyprus. Athanasios was targeted because of his association with Iosif.

The allegations against both men were made by Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos, who claims he received the information from reliable sources.

However, after the Synod’s announcement yesterday following a six-hour meeting, the outspoken Paphos bishop could not contain his anger and hit out at journalists, kicking a microphone out of his way.

No comments were made after the Synod meeting, but a brief statement was read out by Synod secretary Archimandrite Vassilios Papaphotis.

He said the source of the information against Athanasios was unreliable, but that those allegations against Iosif should be further investigated.

Papaphotis concluded his brief statement with an appeal for a ban on public statements which “confuse and scandalise the public”.

Last Wednesday, Chrysostomos had offered an apology for making the sordid allegations against Iosif, but insisted his claims were true.

He has consistently denied that his allegations have anything to do with his opposition to Athanasios’s candidacy for Bishop of Limassol.

Bishop Chrysostomos’s claims have outraged priests and further damaged the reputation of a Church already reeling from the recent fraud allegations which forced Bishop Chrysanthos of Limassol to resign.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.