The following article appeared yesterday on the BBC website under a different title and without a byline. Our readers will recall that the Kremlin and its puppet Patriarch continue to scapegoat Ukraine’s steadily improving record on LGBTQ rights (including Kyiv’s annual Pride celebration) as one of Ukraine’s greatest threats to Russia and one of the principal justifications for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We note that, under the expanded legislation, the saintly confessor for the Faith, Father Pavel Florensky, would have been arrested and heavily fined with the blessing of the Metropolitan of Moscow for his theology of same-sex love in 1914.

Inscription reads TSARITSA PUTIN (“Queen Putin”)

Photo credit: NBC News

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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. See also Metropolitan Antonios’ biography which we published on October 24. We note that His Eminence’s greeting follows the adulterous, predatory former Metropolitan’s farewell by one day, answering our question of why the latter wasn’t published until a week after it was dated, but leaving unanswered the question of why the Vicar allowed such a shameless ego-trip to sully our eyes in the first place.

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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 following interminable exercise in self-adulation appeared earlier today on the website of the Antiochian Archdiocese. Al- Zehlaoui manifests not a trace of a spirit of repentance, no hint of remorse for the families he has destroyed, not a word of apology to Ms. Helena Ditko (name used with her consent) and his other sexual conquests. He continues to embarrass himself and everyone else by portraying himself as a saintly victim. He is not. 

Most outrageous of all is that this garbage was allowed to appear on the Archdiocese’s website. It shines a stark light on the Patriarchate’s farcical handling of this scandal after Orthodoxy in Dialogue had repeatedly urged the cynics and skeptics among our readers to trust the Patriarch and the Synod to do the right thing. It turns out that the cynics and skeptics were right.

Why the delay of almost a week since the date of the letter? There seems to be something “planned” even in that.

Hey, Joe. You may not be deposed de jure, but you most certainly are deposed de facto in the eyes of everyone. No one wants to hear from you anymore. You will go down in the history of the Archdiocese and the Patriarchate as a fraud and a disgrace to the Church. Orthodoxy in Dialogue thanks God for its part in bringing you to a semblance of justice. You’re not a bad-looking dude for an old man. Put on a pair of dad jeans and hit up the local bars in Post Falls. Surely you’ll find a chick or two who would love a tour of your country estate.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2022
A Message from [former] Metropolitan Joseph

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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. Patriarch John’s announcement of the new Patriarchal Vicar is conveyed in these two documents dated today. The 52-year old Vicar’s biography and Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s commentary follow below.

Note the vacancy in the former Metropolitan’s position on the Executive Committee of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America. (ADDENDUM 10/28/22: The vacancy has been filled—temporarily, we presume—by Metropolitan Antonios, Patriarchal Vicar to the Antiochian Archdiocese.)

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