FROM ‘VULGARITY’ TO COMPLETE ‘CORRUPTION’
By His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos of Australia
When we were writing our previous article ‘The Sabotage of Greeks AbroadFrom Within Greece’ (Vema, April 2005), we could not have imagined that in the very next issue we would have to denounce even more deceitful and more recent wretched actions, unfortunately emanating yet again from the Motherland! This time it concerns an entire mechanism, not just of a plain ‘collusion’ but of a vulgarization of all that is sacred and righteous as far as academic moral duty is concerned, by Professor G. Babiniotis who, for a second term (!), ill-fatedly holds the position of Chancellor at the University of Athens.
The writer had the opportunity of meeting this ‘gentleman’, whilst he was yet an Associate Professor, at the office of that truly unforgettable national figure and linguist, the late G. Kourmoulis, whose bones, together with those of Stylianos Korres, another Academic Teacher of unparalleled purity, would be ‘turning in their graves’ on account of the entirely ‘modernistic’ frivolities of such an ungrateful student nurtured under their wings! Nonetheless, when Mr. Babiniotis visited Sydney for the first time - in his capacity as President of the Society for the Friends of Education and as Professor of Linguistics at the University of Athens - we had received him as an old-time friend, together with his wife, and we presented him to the students of our Theological College to whom he spoke modestly and altogether constructively. However, a brief time later when elected Chancellor, he was ‘destined’ to fall into the trap of that notorious ‘miracle- worker’ of the Antipodes Tasos Tamis (otherwise known as Anastasios Tamisoglou) who, as we have formally and consistently publicized over the years, will remain in the history the Greek Australian people as the most callous ‘exploiter’ and spurious Scholar!
Like a shrewd ‘illusionist’ (despite the false academic titles which he claimed in the past) he managed, through his ‘studies’ in Melbourne, to receive a Doctorate and to establish at the University of La Trobe a scholastic team which he initially named ‘Centre for MacedonianResearch’, attributing to himself the imaginary title of ‘Macedonologist’ (for as long as the ‘Macedonian problem’ was still heightened, with the well-known results today!). Very soon, however, he was forced to rename the Centre in mention ‘National Centre for Hellenic Studies and Research’ (EKEME), when the Macedonian issue ‘no longer had currency’.
In this way, with the support of the Chancellor of La Trobe, Professor M. Osborne, by periodically inviting academic and economic figures from Greece (a classic example was that other ‘illusionist’ of PASOK, Minister Pahtas!) he was able to present ‘honorary Doctorates’ even to unapprised businessmen, in order to secure funding for the ‘enormous work’ and the ‘grandiose’ programmes of this belated ‘National Missionary’ of the Antipodes! However, there still exist (e.g. in the State Library of N.S.W.) the newspapers of the Th.Skalkos group where, for years, Mr Tamis systematically wrote as a columnist against every Greek institution in Australia (Archdiocese,Embassy, Consulates, etc). There, all of his other ‘feats’ have also been immortalized, including his crowning achievement of bringing to Australia, in collaboration with the rebel former Athonite monk Ierotheos Kourtessis and the then Education Director of the Consulate General for Greece in Melbourne P. Liveriadis, the tempest of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem which ‘invaded’ our Archdiocese through the documented ‘lurid activities’ of PatriarchDiodoros’s emissaries, Bishops Timotheos of Lydda and Isihios of Capitolia. This episode engaged our Archdiocese in two and a half years of intense struggles and confrontations, and was resolved by the historic Great and Supreme Synod (July 1993) which ‘ejected’ the perpetrators with the penalty of defrockment, even threatening Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem himself (!) from the Canonical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Throne.
All these events were certainly not unknown to the meddlesome and ‘shrewd’ Chancellor from Athens, G. Babiniotis, when he came invited by Mr Tamis for lectures and ‘academic’ transactions (we do not mean exchanges!). Indeed, they promoted him through SBS radio as “the first Dean of the Universityof Athens to come to Australia” (!), even though barely four years had passed since the visit here of Chancellor P. Gemtos and the Vice-Chancellor K. Dimopoulos who stayed for some time in Sydney sealing important agreements for academic cooperation with the universities of NSW!
The then Consul General for Greece in Sydney, Mrs Rosa Ieremia, whom Chancellor Babiniotis had rung from Melbourne to secure the permission of the Archdiocese in order to “visit, with Mr Tamis, the Collegesand other Schools of the Church” remembers clearly with what courtesy and honesty we explained why we had to decline the self-evident and, under different circumstances, complimentary gesture by the Chancellor who was considered a friend up until that point, as we have already said.
The only reason for declining him was that he ‘not legitimize’ with his status, either knowingly or unknowingly, the continually and formally denounced Mr Tamis who stands accused by the Church and by the writer for the upheaval caused so unrepentantly against the Greek Australian presence and against the Archdiocese. (We should also recall of course that, initially, we were naïve enough merely to advise Mr Tamis, having succumbed to his request that we entrust to him free access to the official archives of the Archdiocese for his supposedly patriotic research).
However, this dangerous person remained dauntless in his ‘Ovidian transformations’ with the singular purpose of approaching, like a chameleon, the Governments of Greece and Cyprus, community Organizations (and individual persons in every State of Australia) for the procurement of sponsorships and capital with which he would promote the so-called national causes and important ‘cultural priorities’ of the Greek Australian community. The result of that ‘research’ was primarily the defamation of our people here in Australia with articles (in English at that!) relating to tragic details of the hitherto unknown private lives of problematic office-bearers of our community (Clergymen and Diplomats) during the turbulent times of their initial arrival.
A sample of this ‘tomb-raking’ mania of the tardy ‘researcher’ Mr Tamis includes what is produced in English in the Electronic Periodical ‘Anagnostis’ (Reader)! On this website are featured, at this moment, the schizophrenic moves for the return of the now deceased Archbishop Ezekiel, following his voluntary resignation, in which the leading role was played by people (encouraged by the resigned Prelate) with whom Mr Tamis later cooperated closely in plots and conspiracies far worse. Only that, now, the ‘mover’ in all those anomalies of the Greek community, IerotheosKourtessis, is dead. Undoubtedly, he could have revealed in detail the ‘culpability’, the ‘involvement’ and the ‘gains’, in each case, of the newly-minted Academician of the Antipodes.
So then, it is precisely this fateful person with whom the Chancellor G. Babiniotis‘went into partnership’, with incomprehensible zeal. Having drawn up a programme of mutual activity both here and in Greece, he began to ‘upgrade’ Mr Tamis spectacularly in prominent Athenian newspapers, in official ceremonies ofthe University of Athens, as well as in Exhibitions and Lectures on the life of Greek Australians, not only in the large urban cities of Greece, but also in country towns, even in Kythera. And, of course, in the first instance we must say “no resentment”! On the contraryWe would have been especially grateful had this‘enlightenment’ which was developed with such unusual zeal, reflected even the basics of the real image of Australia’s Greeks.
Unfortunately, though, the exact opposite and entirely unpredictable occurred.In other words, because our Archdiocese never conformed with these strange ‘alchemies’ which they resorted to systematically, they decided quietly to provoke us frequently, thinking that, in this way, they would ‘humiliate’ us or ‘silence’ us. So they began, every so often, sending or bringing a selection of ‘fiery patriots’ in order to teach and to assemble into a ‘dynamic presence’ (!) the… ‘forgotten Greeks of distant Australia’. Even recently a peculiar Organization under the characteristic name ‘EcumenicalHellenism-Hellenic National Line’ was distributing free Flags and volumes on Macedonia, in the belief that they were bringing us ‘emergency relief’ as though we were stranded in the Desert.
Other ‘soul saviours’, with the title ‘Maestros of Byzantine Music’ (under the conductor G. Stathis) hastened with unprecedented audacity and irreverence to teach our people even elements of Divine Worship (!) withoutthe blessing and permission of the Canonical Prelate, in as many places as the Staff of Mr Tamis and the ‘blessings’ of Mr Babiniotis were able to secure each time.
These ‘illusionists’ of academic wisdom, knowing full-well that due to geographical distance on the one hand, and due to the indifference on behalf of the State Authorities or other constituents of public life in Greece on the other, the ‘staged’ image they had prepared would pass without objection, they managed to project systematically and brazenly as ‘The Greeks of Australia’ (!) the whole coalitionof those opposed to the Canonical Churchand Her God-fearing Faithful (who, werepeat, constitute 98% of Greek Australians).
Whoever doubts the deception andinsolence of the demonic methods they haveused to date, has only to carefully read the‘Dedication to the Greeks of Australia’ inthe ‘K’ insert of the ‘Kathimerini’ newspaperof Athens (24-4-2005) that will be recordedin History as an indelible stigma, not only onthe instigators of this deceit, but also on thereputable newspaper ‘Kathimerini’.The writer, not having at his disposalthe same ‘weapons’, and not having theambition ever to acquire such weapons, hadno other alternative than to send immediatelythe following Letter/Protest to the Editor-in-Chief of the ‘Kathimerini’, which he alsocommunicated officially wherever he consideredappropriate, for the imperativerestoration of the insulted Hellenic presencein Australia. We cite it by way of conclusion,to the disgrace of all those who continue to‘play where games should not be played’!
Mr K.I. Angelopoulos
Editor-in-Chief
Kathimerini newspaper
Ethnarchou Makariou & Falireos 2
Neon Faliron 185 47
Dear Mr Angelopoulos,
First of all, I wish you the blessings of the Risen Lord in the truly high responsibility ofyour duties within a newspaper of the history and esteem of Kathimerini.
Not only have I been a regular reader of your Sunday edition for some decades now, butI have also had the honour of meeting the late Eleni Vlachou during her official visit here(with God’s help, I have been in this position since April 1975).
I therefore write to you today, not so much to protest in the strongest terms against the monstrosity of the newspaper’s magazine insert (24-4-05) in a supposed special dedication to the 800,000-strong Greek community of Australia, but rather to express my disappointment that the ‘terrible duo’ of G. Babiniotis and A. Tamis managed to catch even you off guard, by deceptively not revealing the true picture of our blessed community here, such that it would correspond to its real scope even basically.
I enclose the pocket Calendar of our Archdiocese for the year 2005, which briefly outlines:(a) the structure, (b) the institutions around Australia and (c) the numbers of itscanonical flock.
The so-called ‘Federation of Greek Orthodox Communities’ has been entirely politicized for decades and, being in schism under the banner of the ‘Autocephalous Church’ (!) which exists in name only, does not amount even to 8-10,000 people across the whole Continent.
Sydney, May 9, 2005
With prayers in the Lord
Archbishop STYLIANOS
Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia
This article was published in The Greek Australian newspaper
TO VEMA May 2005