Monk’s parents restart efforts to prosecute bishop

Elias Hazou
Cyprus Mail
June 22, 2020

The parents of a monk have filed an appeal with the supreme court against a prior court decision that had acquitted Limassol Bishop Athanasios and others of proselytising their son some 18 years ago.

The family of Giorgos Theodoulou, 44, had sued the Church of Cyprus for €2m claiming it brainwashed their son.

They were also suing Limassol Bishop Athanasios, Maheras Abbot Epifanios, and the state attorney-general for €2m, after their son Giorgos dropped his studies and became a monk.

They claimed that in 2002, Athanasios, using contacts, promises and psychological influence managed to convert their son to monasticism.

The parents claimed that as a result of the brainwashing, their son is being held at the monastery against his genuine free will.

The monk himself denied being the victim of indoctrination and said he was acting of his own free will.

Nicosia district court had earlier ruled against the parents, finding that the monk's decisions and actions were his own.

In their appeal now, the parents' lawyers are citing 22 reasons why they think that ruling was wrong. They are essentially arguing that it was a mistrial, as the district court had not admitted evidence that was vital to the case at the time.

The parents also claim they did not receive a fair trial, owing to the fact that the hearings took about eight years to start after filing the petition, whereas once the trial did get underway there occurred delay after delay until the final ruling.

Their lawyers also argue that the district court had made the wrong decision on legal grounds.

In their appeal before the supreme court, the parents are being represented by the law firm Phoebus, Christos Clerides & Associates LLC.



https://cyprus-mail.com/2020/06/22/monks-parents-restart-efforts-to-prosecute-bishop/

Church issues warning over Scientology 'infiltration'

EVIE ANDREOU 
Cyprus Mail
FEBRUARY 1ST, 2019

The Church of Cyprus on Friday warned that the foundation for a Drug-Free World was a branch of the Church of Scientology which, it said, was not only one of the most dangerous cults but was also “a disguised financial enterprise”.

In a written statement, the Church’s Synod Committee on cults, citing a document on religious cults, said that the Church of Scientology “works under various facades and with a variety of parent organisations whose names do not cause any suspicion.”

“Under pseudonymous titles and names, it tries to erode all areas of life, including politics and the economy,” the committee said.

It also referred to a branch of the Church of Scientology – the Centre for Applied Philosophy – that was shut down by Greek authorities some years ago.

The multi-page report by the court at the time, according to the announcement, describes “not only a multitude of illegal activities, but also reveals the surveillance of political and ecclesiastical personalities in the country and sending the data to foreign centres abroad in an encrypted fashion.”

Among the people that had been monitored, was the Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos, who at the time, was the Bishop of Dimitriada, the Church said.

According to the decisions of the Greek courts, the Synod Committee said, “Scientology is an organisation with totalitarian structures and tendencies that essentially despises man.”

Participation in it “entails a change in personality of the members, behaviour in relation to third parties and especially in relations with their families.”

Furthermore, it said, “it is a disguised commercial enterprise and (…) pursues purposes unrelated to the nature and concept of man as a free being and towards the norms and customs of the Greek people.”

The announcement of the Synod Committee on cults, follows the controversy over data about drug use in schools given to MPs this week by the representative of the Cyprus chapter of Drug-Free World Europe (DFW), which comes under the umbrella of the Church of Scientology.

The representative of the foundation, Stella Constantinou, denied that the programme had any links with the Church of Scientology’s ideology other than funding.



https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/02/01/church-issues-warning-over-scientology-infiltration/

Bishop brainwashed my son, mother tells court

ANGELOS ANASTASIOU
CYPRUS MAIL

JANUARY 23, 2017

The mother of a monk who is suing Bishop Athanasios of Limassol told Limassol court on Monday that her son was brainwashed and recruited by ‘confessors’ working with the bishop.

Maria Theodoulou is the mother of a 43-year-old monk and is suing the bishop, other leading clergymen and the attorney-general for actions and omissions that led to her son’s decision.

From the witness stand, Theodoulou, who filed for damages up to €2 million, said that Athanasios placed her son in his crosshairs before the two even met.

She told the court that investigations by her and other monks’ parents led them to the conclusion that children’s confessions with other priests “usually” come before Athanasios takes over.

The bishop’s defence attorney, Marios Hardjiotis, asked Theodoulou when her son may have been targeted, and she replied it was during a series of lectures Athanasios gave at the University of Cyprus in around 2001.

She added that Athanasios knew her son from the university, although he didn’t yet know Athanasios.

“[Athanasios] saw him, spotted him, gathered information about my son,” the woman said.

“The information was processed – the bishop gets information from universities on the people that interest him, whom he wants to lure to his fraternity. Giorgos was unaware. Before Giorgos met Athanasios, Athanasios already knew Giorgos.”

Hardjiotis suggested that Theodoulou has concocted a science-fiction scenario in her head to prove that her son was the “victim of the bishop’s associates and recruiters”.

He submitted that much of the plaintiff’s written statement in court was fabricated and designed to convince the court, as, for example, the serious affair her son had with a woman, which he broke off when he entered the Macheras monastery.

Theodoulou had said that the relationship had been very serious, and her son had intended to marry the woman, but he ended it abruptly in 2003.

“I happened to go the same gym as the woman, and she told me that Giorgos had ended because, he said to her, he decided to take a different path,” Theodoulou said.

Hardjiotis countered that the relationship was ended in 2001.

“It is a fabrication that your son broke off the relationship at Athanasios’ urging, because your son met the bishop seven months after he broke up with the woman,” he said.

With regard to the diary Theodoulou claimed she kept since early 2002, when she first noticed her son “showing symptoms”, Hardjiotis said her writings were the result of her “obsessions”.

“Someone had to pay for your obsession, and that was the bishop,” he charged.

The chronology, he added, suggests that she made a big mistake.

“I had no obsessions or anything of the sort,” she countered.

“He is my son and I know him much better than you.”

She recounted New Year’s eve of 2002, when her son told her he wouldn’t join them at a new year’s party, but would instead go to a vigil.

“I know my son well, and it was odd that he wanted to go to a vigil,” she said.

“I conclude that something triggered this. He had no such tendencies. His behaviour at that time had been incompatible with his life.”

The lawyer told Theodoulou that her son will come to the courtroom and answer any questions she may have, suggesting that he will contradict 90 per cent of her claims.

The hearing continues on Wednesday.

http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/01/23/bishop-brainwashed-son-mother-tells-court/

Church being sued over ‘cult-like recruitment’ of monks

October 19, 2016
InCyprus

The parents of a Nicosia man are suing the Orthodox Church for €2million after accusing a bishop of turning their son against them and using cult-like methods in order to manipulate him into becoming a monk.

Recordings attributed to Limassol Bishop Athanasios have revealed him allegedly telling new monks to renounce their parents and obliterate every part of their old selves with ‘holy hate’ in order to become closer to God.

The DVD recordings were submitted to a court in Limassol by the parents of man who, they claim, was forced into becoming a monk.

Responding to the reports, Athanasios stood by his comments and said they had all been spoken in the spirit of the Holy Word.

“Everything I said, I said in front of a lot of people. It was not hidden,” he told Phileleftheros.

“What I told the monks is that from the time they become monks, they must follow the monastic way of life and not allow themselves to be distracted by other things that are not connected to being a monk”.

In an unprecedented case for Cyprus, Maria and Frixos Theodoulou, from Nicosia, filed a €2m suit against the church and state claiming that men of cloth turned their son, Giorgos, away from them 15 years ago.

They have since filed the suit against Athanasios as well as the Abbot of Machairas Monastery Epifanios, the monastery itself and Attorney General Costas Clerides, the latter for not taking action.

According to court testimony by the man’s mother, Giorgos had shown little interest in religious matters, had wide range of hobbies and had been in a serious relationship with a woman before Athanasios first came into his life in 2001.

In his comments to the paper, Athanasios also said the man whose parents have gone to court had entered the monastery when he was 37 years old and was now 43 adding: “If someone with a doctorate degree cannot decide what they want to do with their life then who can?”

In the recordings, the person attributed as being Athanasios, likened monks who tried to combine their holy calling with their old lives with vampires.

“They are like a dead person who may have been buried but is still reaching out from the grave trying to grab onto things. That is being a vampire”.

He also said that monks must leave their parents behind when entering the monastery saying: “We all had mothers. Your mother is not the only one”.

Athanasios was also recorded saying that it was more important for a monk to continue his duties at a monastery than to attend his father’s funeral and cautioned there were few greater sins than a monk turning his back on the monastic life.

“Never look back, for anything. Because then you become a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife. Do not turn back. You do not understand what a great sin this would be Look into your heart and clear out the junk inside. We do not care about anything on earth. Nothing. Not our mother. Not our village. Not our country. Nothing.”

He also said it was not enough for the monks to give up every element of their past lives, they must also give up every part of themselves: “This is called holy hate. To give up everything about yourself”.

He also referred to the large number of donations he had managed to get: “We have amassed so many donations over the past few years. Over €5m or €6m. Even if I was the best businessman around, I could not have made €6 million”.

http://in-cyprus.com/church-being-sued-over-cult-like-recruitment-of-monks/

Church sued by family over alleged brainwashing of monk son

OCTOBER 12, 2016  
ELIAS HAZOU
CYPRUS MAIL

Church sued by family over alleged brainwashing of monk son 
Limassol bishop Athanasios

The alleged brainwashing of a young man, said to have shunned his family and turned to monastic life, has regained traction after the recent publication of his mother’s shocking testimony in an ongoing lawsuit.

In the first-of-its kind lawsuit, now being heard before Nicosia district court, the young man’s family are seeking general damages of up to €2 million from Machairas monastery in Limassol, current Limassol bishop Athanasios, the Archbishop in his capacity as the head of the Church, as well as from the Republic.

The family of Giorgos Theodolou, from Nicosia, claim that Athanasios proselytized their son beginning in 2001. As a result of the indoctrination, Giorgos, now aged 43, was completely changed as a person.

There is no legal precedent for this type of claim, and the Cyprus Mail understands that there are dozens of families with similar grievances against the church who are awaiting the outcome of this case.

The case was filed in 2010, with the hearings starting around May 2015.

In September of this year, Giorgos’ mother Maria testified in court. She told of how her son gradually came under the spell, as it were, of Athanasios.

Sources apprised of the matter told the Mail that Giorgos’ first contact with Athanasios happened when the young man was studying at the University of Cyprus. There, Athanasios was giving a series of lectures on monasticism.

The mother provided an account of how her son’s brain was re-wired. Prior to this, she said, Giorgos was an active and extroverted young man, and was involved in a romantic relationship.

That all changed, however, as he gradually turned into an introvert, morose, grew a beard and wore only black clothes, spending hours on end praying.

Matters came to a head one day when Giorgos, in a state of panic, told his mother that he had seen a “demon.”

His mother tried to make him see reason, asking him how a spiritual person could have such experiences.

His response was that “the devil” was seeking to stop him from becoming a monk and eventually a “saint.”

In desperation, the mother contacted Athanasios – who from 1993 to 1999 was abbot at Machairas monastery before being ordained bishop of Limassol.

Athanasios’ response was that Giorgos was an adult and could therefore make his own choices.

Once Giorgos discovered that his mother had spoken with Athanasios, he allegedly flew into a rage and physically assaulted her. It was the first time he had ever done so.

The family dismisses the church’s ‘free will’ argument, insisting that their son became a pawn in the hands of the monastery.

Giorgos’ mother is set to be cross-examined by the defendants’ lawyers on November 10.

The plaintiffs are also suing the attorney-general (the Republic) for failing to institute laws protecting family life. The Republic is also being held accountable for not instituting a framework that designates under what circumstances a person can become a monk, given the austere nature of the calling that involves isolation.

It is not yet clear whether Giorgos or bishop Athanasios will be taking the stand.

An ordained monk must transfer all his possessions to his monastery. It’s understood that, to prevent this, Giorgos’ father has since transferred title to his property to his daughter, to prevent the property going to Giorgos – and ultimately Machairas monastery – after he passes.

http://cyprus-mail.com/2016/10/12/church-sued-family-alleged-brainwashing-monk-son/