GREECE
Athens News
GEORGE GILSON
LIKE Chinese water torture, embarrassing revelations, leaked drop by drop, continued to batter Greece's embattled Archbishop Christodoulos, immediately overshadowing a series of transparency measures introduced by the church to overcome its simmering crisis.
Patriarch Eirinaios of Jerusalem on February 23 confirmed allegations that Christodoulos sent convicted drug dealer and suspected intelligence agent Apostolos Vavylis as an envoy to help him be elected patriarch in 2001. Eirinaios had earlier denied that Christodoulos had sent Vavylis as an envoy.
Christodoulos, who has admitted that he wrote a recommendation for Vavylis before his drug conviction, repeated his denial that he sent Vavylis to Jerusalem. But the development cast further doubt on his ability to clean up the church while he is now faced with a wave of calls to resign.
A 1996 Greek intelligence document published by To Vima on February 22 indicated that Vavylis was an Israeli Mossad agent, and his access to the Greek public order and defence ministries could prove to be a major espionage case.
Posted by kshaw at March 2, 2005 08:44 AM