Patriarch Irinaeos 2018
PATRIARCH IRINAEOS
As of this date in December 2017 the illegal patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos, and his secret cabinet has sold to Israeli developers over $850 million [US] worth of land belonging to the Holy Church.
Theophilos did, in 12 years, exactly what he and the Holy Synod of Bishops accused Patriarch Irinaeos of doing in 2005: stealing Church land. The difference? - Irinaeos did nothing wrong. The Israeli government and Israeli Police never even brought any criminal charges against him. Until this day, Irinaeos has never been charged. In 2005, the Synod decided that Irinaeos was guilty and voted to have him removed from office. Even without any concrete evidence, Irinaeos was removed and, in record time, replaced with Theophilos. Theophilos quickly stripped Irinaeos of his rank as Patriarch and Bishop, and reduced him to a monk. Theophilos then ordered Irinaeos to move from where he had lived since the age of 13 years old and leave Jerusalem. When Irinaeos refused, Theophilos ordered that a jail door with a lock be installed over his cell door. This jail door remained for 4 years. Until 2015, Irinaeos was never allowed to leave his cell. Never allowed to attend Church Services or Liturgy. His friend Amar brought him food and necessities every day for his survival.
I originally wrote about this in 2010 from the information I had acquired about this Coup d’etat against The Holy Church. See:
http://archive.com/www.gopoj.org
I now have, for you, the motive and crime that was committed, as well as the participants.
During the early 90’s Patrick Nicholas Theros [see: Wikipedia] was the US Ambassador to Qatar. In Qatar, Theros met Theophilos, who had been assigned to Qatar for the Jerusalem Patriarchate.
In 2001 Theros contacted Theophilos by letter to see if he would be interested in becoming Patriarch of Jerusalem. Because Patriarch Irinaeos refused to sell Church land to Israel, Theros explained to Theophilos about his plan sell Church property. Theros, a Greek, himself, had other Greek businessmen willing to help. One of these Greek businessmen was former US CIA Director, George Tenet [see: Wikipedia]. In 2005 Tenet got the support of President Bush to use the CIA to help orchestrate the takeover of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and install Theophilos as Patriarch. Israel and her intelligence services did not have to be convinced to provide support for the overthrow. The lure of new land was overwhelming.
Soon evidence had been planted against Irinaeos, the Holy Synod was bribed and corrupted, and the local citizens were enflamed against Irinaeos with stories of him selling Church land. The Media had been alerted to the false crime. The conspiracy evolved like clockwork. While Irinaeos was awaiting his fate by the government of Israel, the Synod of Bishops unanimously and against the Holy Apostolic Canons, voted to oust Irinaeos. Few people had tried to support Irinaeos, and the ones that did were quickly silenced through intimidation and/or bribes. Within only a few months, Theophilos, a relatively unknown Bishop (Theophilos was originally ordained as bishop by Irinaeos), was installed as Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem. Irinaeos was imprisoned to keep him from telling his story and Theophilos proceeded, with the Synod, to secretly sell property throughout Israel and Palestine to government backed Israeli developers. Israel was happy. They finally had someone from the Church to help them acquire much needed property. Jordan approved the new Patriarch, but Israel waited 2 years to avert the suspicion of collusion, before approval. Finally, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Greek Orthodox Church, Patriarchate of Constantinople, gave his blessing to the ouster and imprisonment of Irinaeos, and the seating of Theophilos upon the Throne of the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Of course, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was given by the newly installed Patriarch Theophilos, all of the Jerusalem Patriarchate Churches in America that were established by Patriarch Diodoros. Patriarch Bartholomew was also given large financial donations by the same Greek businessmen. Patriarch Bartholomew was fully aware that ousted Patriarch Irinaeos had been locked in his cell. The Bishops of the Greek Orthodox Churches throughout the world knew that a sitting Patriarch is elected for life and cannot be removed from the Throne for anything less than outright blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. All the Bishops sat by doing nothing for fear of retaliation, or loss of their own position. Clergy that cried foul were removed from office or saw their churches taken away. “Little Irinaeos,” a monastic located in Greece, along with his monastery, spoke out against what had happened to Patriarch Irinaeos and his inhuman treatment at the hands of Theophilos. Fr. Timothy and other Monasteries also support Irinaeos. Many Bishops and Priests secretly support Irinaeos, too.
After Theophilos was Patriarch for a while, the news media lost all interest in what had happened, and all stories faded away. The true Patriarch, Irinaeos, locked and hidden in his monastic cell, disappeared from memory of the people. Only those closest to him fought to keep the people aware of his voluntary suffering in Christ; his refusing to leave his appointed service to the Holy Church as Patriarch. When I asked Patriarch Irinaeos in 2008 why he was staying, he said, it was for the people. He said, he couldn’t leave. Theophilos told Irinaeos that if he would voluntarily sign a document relinquishing his title as Patriarch and return his Engolpion (pectoral medallions of Christ and the Theotokos), he would be free to leave. Irinaeos refused. In 2018 it will be 13 years of His Beatitude suffering humiliation at the hands of his fellow clergy, solitude, cold, lack of food, lack of health care, and other human rights abuses.
In 2015 Irinaeos was hospitalized with serious health problems. He was allowed out of his cell, but after his recovery was returned to house arrest.
Finally, in 2017, Danae Elon, an award-winning Israeli documentary filmmaker and very brave soul, made a movie about the plight of Patriarch Irinaeos, called “The Patriarch’s Room”. This inspiring art piece centered around Irinaeos, brought out the corruption of what had happened, while at the same time showed the beauty of the Holy Church. After the movie was released, Theophilos started to allow Irinaeos time to attend Liturgy and leave his cell for short trips, but he always accompanied by clergy that Theophilos appointed.
Over the course of ten years, two lawyers in Israel, 30 Israeli government officials, 12 US government officials, numerous intelligence agents, military officials, US politicians, Israeli politicians, 22 Orthodox Church Hierarchy, 6 Roman Catholic hierarchy, including the office of Pope Francis, had no influence in releasing His Beatitude, Patriarch Irinaeos from his imprisonment in the Patriarchal compound located in Jerusalem, Israel.
I can say without hesitation, if this had happened in the United States of America, Theophilos would be serving life in prison.