Who are you Fr. Alex?

Katehon - June 18, 2016

The so-called “Great and Holy” council has started in Crete. Representatives of 10 Churches are attending the event, which planned to gather representatives of all legitimate and canonical Orthodox Churches all over the world, representing the minority of the Orthodox world. The reason is the decision of the Antiochian, Georgian, Bulgarian, and most populace Russian Orthodox Churches not to attend the event due to the fact that they previously had a disagreement on a number of issues that were unsolved.

Earlier, the representatives of the churches, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church, called for the Patriarchate of Constantinople, who holds the Council, to postpone it for later time to discuss the issues once again and come to an agreement. However, the call was not heeded. Reverend Alexander Karloutsos, a member of the organizing committee of the Great and Holy Council, responded to this appeal proposing to organize pre-consular meeting during the council.

“There is no mandate to change or postpone and we are going to proceed. They asked for a pre-conciliar meeting on the 17th and we expect them to be here,” he said. “We are the church of love and embrace everyone.”

Why does such a haste and unwillingness to compromise exist? The answer is clear when we look at the person of Father Alexander.

Fr. Alex Karloutsos is an ordinary archpriest. However, this does not prevent him from being one of the most influential people in the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Greek press in the US calls him “omnipotent Fr. Alexander Karloutsos —the one every President knows by first name— “Fr. Alex” as they have endearingly called him”.

He is called the gray eminence of the Archdiocese of Ecumenical Patriarchate in America. “The Machiavel who functions as a sort of papal legate within the GOA. In reality, he is the man who really runs the show.”

Fr. Alex lives in New York and is Public Affairs Officer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America as well as the spiritual advisor of the Order of St. Andrew, and Executive Advisor of Faith: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism. What does these unknown for uninitiated persons organizations hide? The St. Andrew Order is the union of the so-called archons Patriarchate of Constantinople. Now Archon is an honorary title that is assigned by the Patriarch of Constantinople to the laity. Usually it has produced the richest members of the Greek Orthodox community and a variety of crooks who want to satisfy themselves (i.e., the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev).

Faith: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism has a scope to fund the National Ministries and Institutions of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. It gathers the wealthiest Greek Americans. At the same time, this fund is the one of the American influence instrument of Greek affairs. Fr Alex Karloutsos is well known for his wide network of contacts in the Greek-American community, especially with American billionaires of Greek origin. Journalist Justine Frangouli who wrote the biography of Spyridon, former Archbishop of America in the 19th Century, called fr. Alexander to be the Patriarch’s fundraiser.

Father Alexander, since at least the 1990’s, was holding the cash flow management in his hands, which goes from the US to Constantinople. In fact, it is the biggest part of the money, which Phanar has. The small sums of parishes in Turkey or Greece are minuscule, comparing to the money that come from the rich Greek-American community. It made him the most important person in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and gave him an unprecedented pressure on the hierarchy.

According to the Epikera newspaper, he played a crucial role in overthrowing the vibrant and influential head of the American Archdiocese Jacob, which in 1995-1996 tried to bring Archdiocese out of the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Thus, he kept to the Patriarchate of Constantinople such an important source of funds and influence as the American Archdiocese.

Greek political circles and many industrial clans, including the Angelopoulos family, have good relations with him. Among the politicians who backed the cleric, the magazine names the Mitsotakis family (In particular, Dora Bakoyannis, mayor of Athens and foreign minister in the government of Kostas Karamanlis, and Constantine Mitsotakis himself, Prime Minister of Greece in 1990-1993) for whom Karlutsos provides links to the Bush clan, of whom he has close relations with George H. W. Bush. However, according to the publication, both George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras are associated with him. The last was repeatedly rescued by influential American businessmen of Greek origin in request of the Karlutsos, in particular Alex Spanu.

The Kourdisto Portokali Magazine informs that Alexandros helped Alexis Tsipras to establish contacts with the United States. Earlier, Tsipras was the US’ opponent, organizing anti-US protests. In exchange the American investments were proposed.

In particular, it states that the American businessman of Greek origin A. Manatos, second most influential person in the Greek lobby in the US, is ready to support the government of Tsipras. Manatos is the exponent of the interests of the US and Israel, which were for the trade war with Germany. Father Alexander lives in a $700,000 house in the elite Southampton, New York. His closest neighbor in this wealthy area is George Soros. Also, he is closest friend of American pharmaceutical mogul Michael Jaharis as well as cosmetic industry mogul George John Ledes, and had good relation with former CIA Chief George J. Tenet, who is of Greek origin. In 2003 George J. Tenet received The Leadership 100 Award for Excellence from Leadership 100 The Endowment Fund, where Fr. Alexander was Executive Director at this time. The Turkish press said that Fr Alex Karloutsos is acquainted with Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish Islamist leader living in the United States and working with the US intelligence agencies.

Karlutsos is responsible for the communication of the American Archdiocese with all branches of government in the United States. Karlutsos, despite his Republican preferences, maintains good relations with Vice President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton (via his close friend, multimillionaire, John Katsimatidis). Barack Obama is also personally acquainted with the priest.

Naturally, Father Alexander is an ardent ecumenist and advocates co called Judeo-Christian values.

The very specific circle of acquaintances of this person allows you to see that not only is Father Alexander a lobbyist for Constantinople’s financial interests in the US, but the figure responsible for lobbying the interests of the United States through the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In fact, Constantinople is now the US’ hostage. And his participation in the organizing committee of the Council reflects the desire of the American special services to directly influence this Council.

[ Katehon - katehon.com/article/who-are-you-fr-alex - June 18, 2016 ]