Phanar cleric who offended head of Albanian Church refuses to apologize

Archimandrite Roman (Anastasiadis) of the semi-autonomous Church of Crete under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople Patriarchate published an article from which it became clear that he has no intention of apologizing to the head of the Albanian Church, Archbishop Anastasios.

In response to the demand of the Holy Synod of the Albanian Church to take measures against him for insulting the Primate, Archimandrite Roman wrote that the synodals should first ask Archbishop Anastasios of Albania whether he 'feels pride in being mentioned in the texts of the Russian Church directed against our Ecumenical Patriarchate, as their main source and reference.'

'He is repeatedly referred to as the supposed "authority" of the Moscow heretics and their silver-tongued propagandists worldwide, even by the sellout Russian lackeys in Greece, to slander and defame our Ecumenical Patriarch and the Great Church of Christ!' the archimandrite writes.

'This is my response to everything that has happened in these days, to various "statements", of which God is the judge: he, Anastasios, should defend himself, not accuse! He, Anastasios, should be the accused, not the accuser,' the cleric of the semi-autonomous Church affiliated with the Phanar asserts.

He writes that 'with his anti-church and anti-canonical position and behaviour, Anastasios ended up on the wrong side of history, along with the enemies of the Church'.

In the opinion of the archimandrite, 'he, Anastasios, should repent, apologize, and correct his harmful mistakes, for which, of course, not we but God will judge him.'

'My conscience, my witness – the Almighty God and our Most Holy Mother, the Theotokos, whose Dormition we celebrate - is clear! Before God and people, and first and foremost before His Holiness, the great master and Ecumenical Patriarch of ours, the sole Primate of our Church,' concluded the archimandrite of the Phanar.

As earlier reported, a pro-Phanar website published an offensive article about the head of the Albanian Church.

Subsequently, the Synod of the Albanian Church called on the Phanar to provide an assessment of the insults made by its cleric, and later the hierarch of Crete condemned his cleric who had offended Archbishop Anastasios of Albania.