Orthodox monks protest Catholic wedding in Cyprus; angry reaction from archbishop
October 20, 2009
The head of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus has vowed to discipline Orthodox monks and clerics whose protest against a Catholic wedding led to the wedding’s cancellation. The priest had received permission to hold the wedding in an Orthodox church.
“For someone-- whether a lay or clerical person-- to place his opinion above the opinion and decisions of the local synods of the whole of the Orthodox faith amounts to vanity, and indeed satanic vanity,” said Archbishop Chrysostomos II, head of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus since 2006. Urging the protestors to “get their feet back on the ground and gain some redemptive humility,” he said that clerics who took part in the protest would be suspended without pay and that monks who took part would be denied Holy Communion for several weeks.
“If they don’t like it, they should take off their robes and leave the formal Church,” he said. “Let them go and set up their own church.”
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Further information:
- Holy protestors force cancellation of Catholic Wedding (Cyprus Mail)
- The Orthodox Church of Cyprus (CNEWA)
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