A civil lawsuit has been filed against the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto, several priests, some family members of priests, and other individuals within the community.
The court document, filed by the non-profit charity Greek Community of Toronto (GCT), alleged that members of the religious organization committed verbal and physical abuse, stole funds for a sick baby from a church fundraiser, and promoted sex offenders to positions within the church.
GCT spokesperson Gina Tassopoulos told CBC News that the non-profit has strived to ensure the financial accountability and transparency of donations made at the churches “with very little success” over three years of mediation efforts.
“That’s led us to believe the funds are being misappropriated,” Tassopoulos said.
In the court document, the GCT alleged that the Greek Orthodox Metropolis and Metropolitan Sotirios Athanassoulas have personally benefitted from a portion of the church donations without declaring the money “as a taxable benefit or income to the Canada Revenue Agency.”
The non-profit also suggested that the organization embezzled cash from a 2012 fundraiser meant for a baby with a serious heart condition.
In 2012, a fundraiser was held for eight-month-old Alexander, who needed to be transported from Greece to Toronto for heart surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children. Donations totaled well over $50,000, the GCT alleged.
The metropolis supposedly announced that $10,000 was being sent to the charity Global Angel on behalf of the child’s family, without disclosing “actual total amount of the collected donations,” GCT claimed.
“In fact, Global Angel only received the paltry sum of $1,450,” the statement of claim continued, adding that the metropolis “unlawfully and fraudulently” misappropriated the rest of the funds.
Global Angel founder Gail Courneyea told CBC that its records show that it had received $10,000 from the Metropolis.
The court document also claimed that a priest at St. Irene Chrisovalantou Greek Orthodox Church would regularly “verbally abuse and physically assault” members of a women’s group at the church.” The group also suggested that within some of the churches, there is a “history of inappropriate conduct by priests negligently appointed by the Metropolitan or the Metropolis.”
In 2015, a Romanian Orthodox Priest named Ioan Pop was installed in the Greek Orthodox Church in St. John – a sex offender on bail, and one that Athanassoulas was aware of during the installation, GCT argued.
The lawyer representing Athanassoulas and the metropolis said that both are aware of the lawsuit, but have yet to file a statement of defense.
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