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

GUILTY

Insider sources at the headquarters of the Antiochian Archdiocese in Englewood NJ have confirmed that the law firm investigating the former metropolitan, Joseph Al-Zehlaoui, has definitively determined his guilt in the matter of a predatory sexual relationship with a married woman under his spiritual authority, for which he groomed her over time at a vulnerable period in her life. (Read the victim’s email and hear the voicemail attached to it. We are told this is but one of almost two dozen incriminating voicemails.)

It’s unclear whether the investigators interviewed any other potential victims, including the one whose name is known to Orthodoxy in Dialogue and whom public records disclose as sharing three addresses with the multi- named, multi-domiciled Al-Zehlaoui. We certainly have not seen any public calls for other victims or witnesses to come forward. This would appear to be an unconscionably incomplete investigation, given the likelihood if not certainty that a predator can never be satisfied with one or two conquests. If you have been targeted by Al-Zehlaoui’s sexual attentions, whether consummated or rebuffed, or you have witnessed the same, we urge you most strongly to contact the investigating attorney:

Paul E. Gaspari
Weintraub Tobin
475 Sansome Street, Suite 510
San Francisco CA 94111
(415) 772-9618
PGaspari@weintraub.com

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For context see the Metropolitan Joseph: The Scandal section in our Archives 2020-22 linked at the top of this page. The screenshot below was sent to us by a reader of Orthodoxy in Dialogue to supplement the one we published earlier today. It would seem incumbent to investigate why Joseph Al-Zehlaoui conducts his life under so many names.

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

A priest of the Antiochian Archdiocese sent two screenshots to Orthodoxy in Dialogue late last night. We’re publishing only this one to protect the identity of the woman (not the author of the email) implicated in the second screenshot and out of consideration for her husband. We point out the following to our readers:

• This is the third name known to us used by the disgraced former metropolitan of the Antiochian Archdiocese. We reported the second one here. Is the multiplicity of names meant to cover his tracks?
• Our readers will recognize the Mountain Road address as that of the Archdiocesan chancery,  the Lorraine Boulevard address as that of the Los Angeles chancery, and the West Century Drive address as that of Al-Zehlaoui’s country estate (for which the property records are published here).
• The screenshot withheld from publication shows a currently married Orthodox businesswoman, prominent in the life of the Church and a childhood friend of Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s editor, sharing three of the above addresses with Al-Zehlaoui—including the Los Angeles chancery. 

Has this information been included in the investigation? Read More

For context see both the Metropolitan Joseph: The Scandal section in our Archives 2020-22 and Teresa Hartnett’s articles on clergy sexual abuse in the alphabetical section of our Archives 2017-19 linked at the top of this page. The author of the present reflection is an Orthodox woman in her 30s who has asked that her identity not be published due to the sensitivity of her personal testimony. The particularities of the Metropolitan Joseph Scandal have not occurred in isolation, but point beyond to the pervasiveness of clergy sexual abuse specifically and spiritual/pastoral abuse more generally. We are appalled to note how many of the faithful blame the women involved in the Metropolitan Joseph Scandal, deride Orthodoxy in Dialogue for seeing them as victims, and somehow see Mr. Al-Zehlaoui as the victim.

In the 1990s, the previous incarnation of the Assembly of Canonical Bishops, SCOBA, organized a subcommittee to address sexual misconduct within the Orthodox churches. The subcommittee convened meetings and returned recommendations, including detailed descriptions of seminary coursework or continuing education units that should be required of all Orthodox seminarians and clergy in any jurisdiction. The members wanted to raise awareness and develop sensitivity around the issue of sexual abuse, in the areas of both prevention and responses to survivors.  One course, titled Clergy & Ministerial Sexual Misconduct, was to include an Orthodox understanding of personhood, sexuality, power and authority, and issues of vulnerability, with emphasis on practical experience. The training was to be mandated and documented. Read More