What misery has befallen us once again. And I don’t just mean the monks’ scandal, the fraud involving miracles, or their romantic activities. I mainly refer to what follows. The leaked videos, letters, and dialogues, the statements by lawyers…
As if the scandal itself wasn’t enough, the public has to be bombarded with juicy details to thoroughly disillusion them. It’s as if these ecclesiastical scandals were some kind of election campaign, and the battle was for public opinion. Are the police and justice system treated differently in these cases?
We are talking about common fraud, deception of citizens, and the extraction of money through false pretences, and it is the job of the police to investigate and uncover the truth.
Well done to the Attorney General for appointing “Criminal Investigators to conduct investigations in collaboration with the Police’s Investigators regarding the potential commission of any criminal offences by any individual”.
We can only hope that the work of the investigators is not hindered by drawn-out procedures. Because we fail to understand why criminal investigators were appointed to this specific case and not others—surely, the authorities must know something we don’t.
Perhaps it’s due to the complexity of the issue. Anyway, as long as there’s a result, that’s all that matters. For the details that are coming to light seem to be an attempt at obfuscation rather than clarification.
What conclusion can one draw when, on the one hand, they see a video of monks preparing the myrrh—the sacred oil—which will flow from the Cross and perform miracles, and on the other hand, the monks’ lawyers release a testimony, allegedly from a pilgrim from Greece.
This pilgrim supposedly went to the Monastery of Saint Abbakum and attests that their infant was crucified and, “for five days after, the baby took baths but smelled of myrrh at the crucifixion site”. Quite the fragrant myron! They should sell the recipe to a perfume company and make a fortune.
This pilgrim, then, claims that he saw the video of the myrrh’s preparation and promptly travelled from Greece to provide this testimony to set the record straight. It’s obvious that we’ve been taken for a ride.
Or take the other example. You see a monk in a video striking a woman, seemingly a cleaner, with a belt and ranting like a lunatic, only for the woman to subsequently claim that “the video is edited”.
How, exactly, was it edited, then? Wasn’t she struck with a belt, and wasn’t the monk having a nervous breakdown?
“There was a misunderstanding, for which I was to blame,” the woman says. “Nothing happened that left me with any injuries.” Not only does she contradict what’s clearly shown on camera, but she also takes responsibility for the incident. presumably to curry favour with the monk.
After this, the Police state that if the woman has no complaints, the investigators cannot proceed regarding any potential offences arising from the video.
The woman may have her reasons for not complaining, but the entire society has one, having witnessed a monk violently striking a woman.
The state and the Church ought to have a complaint, too. The Police should be taking the lead in these investigations.
After all, these are only the tip of the iceberg; there are much more serious crimes that the public is yet to learn about.
