By Charlie Charalambous
LIMASSOL Bishop Chrysanthos, facing possible expulsion from the Church, conceded yesterday he had made grave mistakes in his financial dealings, but said he was ultimately the victim of people out to exploit him.
“Certainly there is a huge responsibility on those who supposedly wanted to help, but in the end exposed the Metropolitan,” Chrysanthos told a CyBC radio interview yesterday.
Although Chrysanthos implied that he was the victim of a well organised scam to extract money from the Church, he admitted that his trust had been misplaced.
“Surely mistakes were made and mistakes were made by me because I trusted these people too much, people who said they were experts and could secure a profit for the Metropolitan (diocese).”
The comments follow Tuesday’s decision by the Holy Synod to appoint a three- member investigation team made up of fellow bishops to decide on Chrysanthos’ guilt, both ethically and legally.
The team will be made up of the bishops of Kitium, Kyrenia and Morphou.
It is understood to be only the second time in the Church’s history that such a committee has been appointed under article 25 of its constitutional charter.
The committee can suggest a range of punishments and has the power to recommend that Chrysanthos be defrocked and referred to an ecclesiastical court for such a purpose.
Article 25 was activated by the Holy Synod after studying a report drawn up by its special investigation committee, which outlined 15 points on which Chrysanthos faced censure for possible breaches of Church law.
Among the reported breaches of financial irregularities, the bishop was taken to task by the committee for not informing the Holy Synod of his transactions and failing to give the inquiry full co-operation.
Faced with the serious allegations, Chrysanthos put his hands up yesterday, admitting that he should have kept Archbishop Chrysostomos informed of his various financial deals.
“This was a serious omission… but I didn’t want to inform him (the Archbishop) continually on something that was going to be realised.”
Chrysanthos’ timely public admissions could be explained by the fact that the three-member committee could send him before a Church court based on his moral behaviour alone.
However, the bishop denied that he had failed to co-operate with the special investigation committee and says he has not been told the terms of reference of the newly-appointed body.
