The paramount temptation of truth
In view of the fact that night can never be day, even the head of the Church of Greece and the patriarch of Jerusalem are obliged to admit that one of them is lying, however much this may damage their reputation. Christodoulos and Irinaios are both refering to the same person, Apostolos Vavilis, but are saying entirely contradictory things. However, it is impossible for both things to be right at the same time. Someone is disobeying the Holy Commandments – in particular the ninth one: «Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.» Someone is sinning. Some panic-stricken individual has doctored the truth; and so he owes us a double apology. Because the people – the faithful, those of little faith and the infidels – are now acknowledging with outrage that certain self-appointed spiritual leaders and ostensible paragons of virtue were not able to resist even the smallest temptation. And so the people are now demanding revelations, confessions, catharsis, resignations. Now that many in the clergy are washing their dirty laundry on televised debates and ostensibly holy men are attempting to solve «theological» problems through their lawyers, it is of little concern whether the archbishop or the patriarch is to blame. There is only one supreme temptation and it is the only one that churchmen should yield to entirely: that of truth. Let them admit that they conspired against their office and their institution…
