Showing posts with label Greek Orthodox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Greek Orthodox. Show all posts

Friday, February 16, 2024

Greek Parliament Approves Same-Sex Marriage

The Guardian reports that Greece's Parliament on Thursday, by a vote of 176- 76, legalized same-sex marriage, making Greece the first Christian Orthodox country to do so. The bill has been strongly supported by Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. However, in a provision criticized by LGBT advocacy organizations, the bill denies same-sex couples access to parenthood through surrogacy. The entire bill was strongly opposed by the Orthodox Church, According to The Guardian:

Orthodox bishops had threatened to excommunicate lawmakers who voted for the measure while the leader of the far-right Spartans party had said the law would “open the gates to hell and perversion”.

Thursday, February 01, 2024

Mother Sues School for Socially Transitioning Her Daughter

Suit was filed yesterday in a New York federal district court by the mother of a middle school student who contends that her free exercise and due process rights were violated when the school began to socially transition her daughter by using a masculine name and plural pronouns in referring to her without informing the mother of the school's action.  The complaint (full text) in Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District, (ND NY, filed 1/31/2024), alleges in part:

233. Mrs. Vitsaxaki was raised in a Catholic household, but after marrying Mr. Vitsaxakis, joined the Greek Orthodox Church...

262. Mrs. Vitsaxaki’s free-exercise rights include the right to raise her children in accordance with her religious beliefs and the right to direct her children’s education and upbringing consistent with her religious beliefs, including on identity, sex, gender, and fundamental questions of existence like how her children should identify themselves.... 

263. By referring to Jane with a masculine name and incorrect pronouns without notifying Mrs. Vitsaxaki or seeking her consent and by concealing these actions from Mrs. Vitsaxaki, Defendants substantially burdened Mrs. Vitsaxaki’s ability to exercise her religion....

266. During the three-month (at a minimum) period that Defendants were concealing from Mrs. Vitsaxaki the actions taken to socially transition Jane, Mrs. Vitsaxaki was unable to exercise her religion by choosing to educate Jane in an environment that would not have undermined her religious beliefs.

ADF issued a press release announcing the filling of the lawsuit.

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Nuns' Hostile Work Environment and Retaliation Claims Can Move Forward

In Brandenburg v. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, (SD NY, Feb. 23, 2023), a New York federal district court held that it can proceed to adjudicate hostile work environment and some of the retaliation claims brought by two nuns against the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and several of its clergy members. The nuns claimed that Father Makris, the school's director of student life and their "spiritual father" subjected them to unwanted sexual attention for 13 to 14 years. According to the court:

[T]he ministerial exception flows from the plaintiff’s status as a “minister.” In this case, however, Defendants’ argument has nothing to do with the fact that Plaintiffs were sanctified nuns; instead, it flows from Father Makris’s status as minister and the alleged rationale for his conduct.... 

These and other cases make plain that the First Amendment does not shield all decisions by religious institutions, whether or employment-related or otherwise, from review. Instead, a court is barred from adjudicating a dispute involving a religious institution “only where resolution of the dispute will require the Court or a jury to choose between competing religious views or interpretations of church doctrine or dogma in order to resolve the dispute.”... 

Defendants do ... assert a religious rationale for ... one relatively minor aspect of Father Makris’s conduct: his kissing of Plaintiffs..... [T]he fact that Defendants proffer a religious rationale does not mean that Defendants should be granted immunity from Plaintiffs’ claims. It merely means that Plaintiffs “may not offer a conflicting interpretation of the teachings of the [Greek Orthodox] Church or canon law to rebut [Defendants’] proffered religious reason.”... [H]owever, Plaintiffs are entitled to offer evidence and argument that Defendants’ proffered religious rationale was not the true rationale for Father Makris’s behavior.

Friday, July 08, 2022

Two Religious Figures Among Recipients Of Presidential Medal of Freedom

Yesterday at the White House, President Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 individuals. (List of all recipients). Among the recipients were: (1)  Sister Simone Campbell, a member of the Sisters of Social Service and former Executive Director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization; and (2) Father Alexander Karloutsos, former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and counselor to several U.S. Presidents. 

Sister Campbell gained national attention in  2010 as author of the "nun's letter" in support of health care reform legislation, while the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed the bill.

Tuesday, June 07, 2022

Court Resolves Details Of Last Rites During Inmate's Execution

In Atwood v. Shinn, (D AZ, June 6, 2022), an Arizona federal district court entered a preliminary injunction detailing the manner in which a Greek Orthodox priest could administer last rites to a prisoner before and during the prisoner's execution by lethal injection.  The state consented to many of the provisions of the injunction. However the court, relying on RLUIPA as a basis, resolved the remaining areas of disagreement: (1) The inmate may be in a wheelchair rather than a restraint chair so he can fully participate in the tonsure ceremony; (2) the priest may be at the inmate's head during the execution so he can place a priestly stole over his head.

Thursday, June 03, 2021

Ministerial Exception Leads To Dismissal Of Part of Nuns' Sexual Harassment Claims

In Brandenburg v. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America, (SD NY, June 1, 2021), two nuns who formerly worked at a Greek Orthodox monastery sued the Archdiocese and several clergy members for sexual harassment by Father Makris at the monastery. One of the plaintiffs also sued over the conduct of Father Makris when he was Dean of Students at the religious college she attended in Massachusetts. When the student reported a sexual assault by a male student, Makris made her marry her attacker to cure the assault.

Invoking the ministerial exception doctrine, the court dismissed plaintiffs' sex discrimination claims and their retaliation claims to the extent they are based on tangible employment action (hiring, firing, job assignments, promotion, compensation).  However the court held that the claims for constructive discharge survive, as do the claims for retaliation to the extent they are based on harassment and not a tangible employment action. Some of plaintiffs' defamation claims also survived the motion to dismiss.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Official Arrested On Wire Fraud Charges

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Monday the arrest on wire fraud charges of Jerome Dimitriou, former Executive Director of an unnamed non-profit organization. The National Herald  identifies Dimitriou as former Executive Director of Administration of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America for 19 years until he was fired in 2017. According to the SDNY release:
DIMITRIOU is charged with committing two embezzlement schemes:  In one, he allegedly embezzled more than $488,000 from Organization-1 by directing subordinates to issue him unauthorized excess salary payments; in the other, he allegedly charged hundreds of personal expenses to his Organization-1 credit card, without authorization, costing Organization-1 at least tens of thousands of dollars. 

Monday, November 04, 2019

Bankruptcy Court Upholds Order To Sell Church Property

In In re: Sindesmos Hellinikes-Kinotitos of Chicago, (ED IL Bkrpt., Oct. 25, 2019), an Illinois federal bankruptcy court refused to vacate a prior order for the sale of the Greek Orthodox Holy Trinity Church in Chicago which was $8.2 million in debt to a bank lender. A group of parishioners sought to have the order vacated, claiming that the local church lacked authority to sell the property because the sale had not been approved by a Parish Assembly vote.  The court said in part:
Here, the parties do not contest that the Debtor is subject to the hierarchy of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of America and is so bound by its Uniform Parish Regulations..... Those Uniform Regulations provide that a
Parish may purchase real and person property, or sell, mortgage, or otherwise encumber its real property . . . upon approval of two-thirds (2/3) of the parishioners in good standing present at a Parish Assembly duly called (with at least ten (10) days prior written notice) for that purpose, provided that approval from the respective Hierarch is received . . . .
The crux of the Concerned Parishioners' argument is, however, that while such approval may have been obtained, as the approval of two-thirds of the parishioners was not, the sale is unauthorized.... According to the Opposing Parties, such procedure is one of convenience for the Hierarch but is not an actual vested right of the parishioners....
[F]or the court to conclude that the church intended to vest in its parishioners a property right sufficient to require service under Bankruptcy Rule 6004(c) and sufficient to create a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the sale, the court must attempt to answer fundamental questions of the church's treatment of its parishioners.
Interpreting that ambiguity and resolving those fundamental questions would require this court to probe into the allocation of power within the church, to attempt to posit the church's intent and polity regarding the rights of its parishioners. That, quite simply, cannot happen.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Israel's Supreme Court Approves Disputed Sales of Greek Orthodox Church Properties

Jerusalem Post and AFP report on a decision of the Israeli Supreme Court on Monday approving the 2004 sale (or in one case, the 99-year lease) by the Greek Orthodox Church of three properties in the Old City of Jerusalem to the Jewish organization Ateret Cohanim. The goal of Ateret Cohanim is to extend Jewish ownership over property in East Jerusalem by purchasing Palestinian-owned property through front companies. Ateret Cohanim paid over $1.8 million for the properties.  The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate claims that the sales were made by its director of finance, Nicholas Papadimas, without proper authorization. It also claimed that Papadimas was bribed to advance the sales. Disclosure of the sales led to the Church's dismissal of Patriarch Irineos I and his replacement by Patriarch Theophilos III. The 3-judge panel of the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's decision upholding the legality of the sales.

Friday, February 06, 2015

Court Refuses To Defer To Ecclesiastical Determination In Church Embezzlement Prosecution

Chicago Tribune reports that a Wisconsin state trial court has refused to apply the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine to a criminal prosecution of a Greek Orthodox priest charged with embezzling trust funds from the church where he served for many years.  James Dokos was trustee of a $1.1 million trust benefiting Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee. The indictment (full text) alleges that Dokos wrote checks for $110,000 outside the terms of the trust, and mostly for his personal benefit. Before going to civil authorities, leaders of Annunciation complained to its parent body, the Metropolis of Chicago, which investigated and concluded that Dokos had done nothing wrong.

Dokos claimed that the case involves a dispute between a priest and a parish council over the use of church funds, and should be decided by the Greek Orthodox Church's internal dispute resolution process. The court disagreed, holding:
Determining whether or not the defendant embezzled money does not require this court to appoint religious ministers, decide tenets of faith (or) interpret church doctrine.