Overseas experts in secret visit to Archbishop

THREE separate reports on the Archbishop’s health are expected to be ready within the week, it was reported yesterday.

The three doctors, who arrived from abroad in secrecy on Friday, examined the ailing archbishop and left the island immediately.

The doctors, understood to be specialists in three fields, will now draft their reports and forward them to Health Minister Frixos Savvides, who will in turn present them to the members of the Holy Synod.

The members of the synod would then study the reports and decide accordingly, Savvides said.

The minister said he had explained to the Archbishop’s relatives that doctors of their choice could not have participated in the team in order to prevent the possibility of the reports being disputed.

Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos hailed the procedure and the secrecy surrounding the Archbishop’s examination, saying the doctors had to remain detached.

Chrysostomos said the Synod, meeting next Friday week, would have the reports before it in order to make final decisions for the future of the Church.

The Bishop of Paphos did not rule out starting procedures for elections to replace the Archbishop.

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.