Monastery head accuses Golden Dawn of infiltration
The head of a Mount Athos monastery that has been in a decades-long dispute with the Ecumenical Patriarchate has told Kathimerini that members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn infiltrated and corrupted the religious community.
According to the head of the Esphigmenou Monastery, Vartholomaios, members of GD filled the monastery “with bouncers and people of the night, hosting them at our monastery, turning it into a den of iniquity.”
Referring to GD’s number two, Christos Pappas, who eluded police after being sentenced to 13 years in prison last month, Vartholomaios said his first thought was that Pappas had taken refuge there.
“It would be very difficult for police to search the monastery, which has basically been turned into a fortress,” he said.
The Esphigmenou monks have for years defied court orders to leave the monastery and allow Church-appointed replacements to take over.
