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

On October 3, Orthodoxy in Dialogue reported on Father Michael Habib  of Twin Falls ID as the most likely face behind “Son of Antioch” at sonofantioch2022@gmail.com, creator of the two short-lived petitions and mass-emailings to overturn the resignation of the disgraced former metropolitan of the Antiochian Archdiocese. One of our tech-savvy readers obtained the above screenshot by logging into the Gmail account and selecting Recover Password. This definitively establishes  Father Habib’s identity via the connection between his email and YouTube accounts.

Another source informs us that Habib conscripted his own mother to conduct some of the mass-emailing. We have seen her email and know her name, but choose not to divulger her identity unless and until it becomes necessary to do so.

Why is this important?

Yet a third source is preparing for publication an eyewitness account of Habib’s meteoric rise from Domino’s Pizza worker to subdeacon, deacon, priest, personal manager of Al-Zehlaoui’s “social calendar” with married women, and the women’s chauffeur to and from the Los Angeles chancery. Al-Zehlaoui’s repentant former lover implicates Habib in her email that has now been seen by some 40,000 readers around the planet. (Our reporting on the Metropolitan Joseph Scandal has garnered over 300,000 views since August 22, over 50% more than we normally get in a year.) Other sources claim that Habib covered for Al-Zehlaoui’s alleged financial crimes. 

This makes the hagiographical language of Habib’s aborted petitions all the more cynical and self-serving.

Finally, there are whispers that Habib himself is under investigation. Orthodoxy in Dialogue is in no position to confirm these; however, we do due diligence as much as we are able, and have actually not published more material than we have published—much to the aggravation of some of our would-be “sources.”

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