Any examples of Orthodox Patriarchs committing major crimes?

Question

Recently, I have read a little bit about a number of popes of the Roman Catholic Church committing some pretty bad crimes, and just generally being morally depraved. Are there any examples of Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs committing the same kinds of immoral acts and crimes? See, I'm presently a Roman Catholic, but as I begin to learn more than the average Catholic knows about his religion, the more I am beginning to question the legitimacy of the papacy. Catholics believe the Holy Spirit guides the college of cardinals in electing a new pope, who is to be the Vicar of Christ. That seems hard to believe, given the fact that so many popes have been depraved. That tells me that the Holy Spirit is not present and acting through the cardinals, and that the pope really shouldn't have any special status. He's just a human being, and just another bishop, just as capable of committing sin and being evil as anyone else. I'm beginning to think that the notion of the pope as universal and infallible leader of all Christians is untenable.

Answer 1

Contrary to what Misty said, me being greek I don't know of any major crimes from Patriarchs.There are many who try to defame the church without verification.If you search enough you may find a priest or two who are not good examples but finding verified major crimes in orthodoxy is very rare in contrast to catholicism. However, what I do know about Patriarchs and Bishops is that they tend to die a lot...Recently we had the abduction of two in Syria I think, don't know what happened to them...Few years before we had the helicopter crash(http://oca.org/news/archived/patriarch-petros-vii-of-alexandria-perishes-in-helicopter-crash) from what I heard there was an explosion..and foul play was suspected.And I can go on and on..If you go back in history one can find that Patriarchs and Bishops death ratio is increasing! They fall victims, whether in the hands of muslims or in those so called "accidents".You see they don't usually live to 100 years old like the Pope and that's because they are devoted to their work and don't sit back, they take action to help people and teach them about Christ, in their country or in foreign countries, which usually irritates many people unfortunately. Archbishop Christodoulos once said prior to his death from his sudden cancer that a Bishop doesn't resign, they "make him resign".

I apologize for the passionate answer but people are free to check and verify my sayings..



Note: I sometimes mix Bishops with Patriarchs this is because spiritually speaking they have the same level and responsibility. There is no difference between them except that the Patriarchs have a larger jurisdiction.



Edit: ehm yeah if it doesn't work just google the link...

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

First of all the Orthodox and Catholic Church were one for over 1000 years. They only officially split in 1054.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8790457/Russian-Orthodox-Church-embroiled-in-corruption-scandal.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/mar/20/greece

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8da92478-8573-11e1-a75a-00144feab49a.html#axzz2mgvf1MBq

http://byztex.blogspot.com/2010/11/monastery-scandal-hits-greek.html

http://www.eurekaencyclopedia.com/index.php/Category:Greek_Orthodox_Abuse

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/12/02/scandals-in-the-greek-church-go-public/



These are just some of what I found with a quick search. As far as historically, it would take a little more time, but there were definitely abuses of authority and scandals over the last thousand years.



Any time there are people of authority, corruption is always a danger. Human beings are weak.



The idea that because some popes were immoral and depraved somehow undermines the Church's claim that the Holy Spirit lead the Church, is to misunderstand this claim. God guides and leads even immoral popes. Not in their immorality but he protects them from leading the Church into error and that has been proved over and over. The "bad popes" were so busy being bad, that they never bothered to proclaim any dogma. This is because the Holy Spirit prevented it.



There is the story of one pope who became pope through coercion. He promised the Queen once in power that he would declare the Arian heresy (which she believed) to be divine truth. However, once in power he wrote her a letter and said he couldn't do it. So again, the Holy Spirit protected the Church.



The corruption of some popes only shows the miracle of God's Church and how he has kept his promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

Answer 4

If you think that Papal infallibility has anything to do with Pope's being capable of sin, you still have alot of studying to do about Catholicism.



Pope's most certainly are capable of sin as are Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs, if you're looking for a sinless church, I'm not sure where to direct you... the church is the gathering place for sinners.

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases



There are literally too many to list.