For context see the Metropolitan Joseph: The Scandal section in the Archives 2020-22 linked at the top of this page. 

Patriarch John X of Antioch

As the Antiochian Patriarchate’s formal investigation of the Metropolitan Joseph Scandal commences later today when Patriarch John and Metropolitan Joseph meet for preliminary discussions, a highly placed source within the Archdiocesan administration at Englewood has emailed Orthodoxy in Dialogue to insist that the following questions must be included on the agenda from start to completion of the Holy Synod’s work:

Thanks for your continuing coverage of the Metropolitan Joseph Scandal. 

Look at this more seriously and ask yourself who knew about the affair, when did they know about it, and how much was spent to keep it secret?

The incriminating email was sent to the Archdiocese’s leadership long before Orthodoxy in Dialogue broke the story, but the Antiochian Archdiocese was ignoring it. Why do you think that is? To protect the faithful from scandal?

Think about it: sustaining a secret affair for almost two decades and keeping it secret would require someone to expend a significant amount of time, energy, and money. This would be even more true for a public figure. And yet a bishop and especially a Metropolitan is rarely ever alone. He travels with an entourage. He has staff and assistants in residence. He has lived on the opposite coast from her [and from woman #2] since 2014. It is impossible that no one else knew what was going on for these many years until last month. You should ask:

How was everyone kept quiet for so long?
Who else was complicit in the affair?
Was anyone blackmailing him?
Were Southern California clergy aware, including the priest directed by the Metropolitan to sue Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s editor over his own scandal?
How much of the people’s money was spent to facilitate this relationship?
Where did the money come from?
Have Trustees enabled and covered up the expenditures?
Without an independent audit, which the Archdiocese has refused to have, how will we ever truly know?

Think bigger picture here. It’s more than sexual and clerical abuse. It’s also a lot of money and complicity.

This is where the real story is. Depending on what the Holy Synod finds, there may be criminal or civil legal exposure here. After all, the Antiochian Archdiocese is chartered as a charitable religious organization, and as such it cannot spend its people’s tax deductible contributions however it wishes.

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