Albanian Nationalists Point Finger at Archbishop Anastasios

By on December 27, 2010 in news

Many people accused the Archbishop of Albania, Anastasios and characterized him as a: “Secret agent of the Greek chauvinism in Albania”, “soldier of fortune”, “conspirator”, or “ fighter of Greek interests”. Others said that he is illegal and he must have already left.
There are many who have turned against Archbishop Anastasios, despite his 20 year presence in the Archdiocese and his strong efforts to reconstruct the Albanian Orthodox Church. Additionally, Archbishop Anastasios was internationally recognized as the best ambassador of Albanian interests. “My only sin is that I am Greek”, says the Archbishop, to those who do not want to remember that a Greek prelate contributed to the rebirth of the Orthodox Church of Albania.



  • Pete Hodge

    It is to this mans credit that he has been seeking the restoration of this man’s credit, that he has been seeking the restoration of the Albanian Orthodox church. Unfortunately though, it would still have links with the Greek Orthodox church.

    A friend of mine is a ‘priest’ in the Independent Albanian Orthodox church, with no connection to the Greek Orthodox church.

    Of course, it would be far better if they all gave up these nonsense churches and became Christians, following the Bible as the only source of religious truth regarding all matters of the Christian life. The church simply being all those who are true Christians, not some organisation or a building.

  • Jean-Marc

    Archbishop Anastasius is one of the godliest men alive. To be Orthodox is to be united with Christ and His children, so its impossible for an Albanian Orthodox Church not to be connected with the Greek and other Orthodox Churches.

    American Protestantism is a heresy akin to Wahhabi Islam – thank God Albania has been sown with true Christianity.

  • Glory Arvanite

    Here is a dumb question: Why is the Albanian Orthodox Church lead by a Greek??? Was this person appointed or elected? May I direct your memory to his inauguration ceremony in which he showed up in a black Mercedes flying the Greek flag? How about his speech of acceptance that he attempted to make in Greek? How can anyone possibly think he is working in the interest of Albania? Albanian Orthodox made it very clear that day that they did not want to be lead by a Greek by booing him and singing patriotic songs while members of Anastasios’ staff were singing in Greek. Yep that’s right, singing in Greek in Albania. How insulting is that? It is clear he is not welcomed in Albania.
    For those ignorant of the truth, Greek genocide of Albanians started with those Muslim Albanians who refused conversion to Orthodoxy. Clearly, this has nothing to do with Christianity but about power and conquest. Greece was built as a byzantine state and as such, it has attempted to regain its territories since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. In spite of Greece’s official statements of releasing any intentions of claiming Albanian land as theirs, Greek “minorities”(for the lack of a better word) powered, financed and encouraged by Greece lobby for independence. BUT…lets not get too caught up into that and let’s get back to the fundamentals.
    What effort has Anastasios made to improve Greek-Albanian relations?
    What improvement have been made to the lives of Albanians other then more Greek schools?
    How many Albanian school opened in Greece given the fact that not only does Greece have a large Albanian minority, it has a work force over 700,000 of Albanian immigrants? (For those of you who do not know Greek minority in Albania make up less than 2% of the population roughly, 30,000 at best and have 3 Greek schools while Albanian minorities in Greece are not allow to speak their language)
    What has he done for our new country of Kosova other than support Serbian claims that Kosova was the heart of Serbia and Byzantium?
    What has been done with the fact that Greece, a Non-Secular Country, a country run by the Orthodox Church, denies basic human rights and refuses to recognized any minorities; specifically Albanian?
    What has he done to improve Albanian economic situation other than go to remote Albanian villages and pay people to claim they are Greek minorities?
    The truth is before your eyes, wether you choose to accept it is a different matter…

  • Gjergji

    We Albanian orthodox respect him for all his work in rebuilding Albanian orthodox Church after communist dictator but his role finishes here , this honorable figure always resisted to speak Albanian after years of his presence in Tirana ,the historical role of Albanian priests who played an important role to make Albanian Church autonomic was diminished. It was not fare the time when an Albanian or Arberor was consider Greek just because was Christian orthodox ,the role of Hellenisem to day as ideology of present times and not of the real past , has particularly to extend the territories of Greece and spread the Greek language among us ,the question is has the honorable Archbishop Anastasios any role or emotions connection particular to this approach ? As archbishop of Albanians orthodox first he must respect his role toward Albanian orthodox and then to Greek speaking Albanians . The new priest in the church must obligatorily know Greek language , in one occasions I was myself present when an Albanian priest meet a Greek priest high in the hieratic of Greek church who was very suppressed at least of how the Albanian priest could not speak modern Greek language . Always Archbishop Anastasios says that his fault is that is Greek , no problem about that for us but I also have any question because I have heard that he has Arbanitic roots does he after of years staying in Albania feels that he is a bit Albanian sicne he asks I have heard also Albanian citizenship ? We do not want a church as an extension of Greek Church with significant role in history in assimilation of Albanians Christians and particularly Arberoreve of further south. With all respect the archbishop must respect our feeling which are not simply nationalist but a respect of our language and identity and of our brotherhood with other Albanians of other religion . This is not unfortunately the spirit of Greek Church governed by another Arbanite. We know very well that Arbanitet of Greece have mixed feelings about their Albanian brothers, some feel this brotherhood but others are in the other limit ,the fact of being Arbanite sometimes does not stop them of harming Albanians.
    Much probably if he really loves us as he says ,his positive role is established and other respectful Albanian priest taught in the schools with our culture could continue by keeping alive our values of our church and our old identity , the Archbishop must leave Albania with our respect for him for what generally considered positively has done for us.

  • John

    Pete, you obviously have no understanding of the Church. This ‘nonsense’ Church gave you the book you know as the Bible. Go spend a month in the presence of Archbishop Anastasios and you will learn what it means to be a Christian (Orhodox, no less).

  • http://ALBANIANNATIONALISTPOINTFINGERATARCHBISHOPANASTASIOS isa

    OF COURSE HE WORKS FOR GREEK SECRET SERVICES IN ORDER TO CLAIM ORTHODOX ALBANIAN AS GREEKS AND HE WORKS THERE ON BEHALF OF GREEK GOVERMENT HE IS TRYING TO ASIMILATE ALBANIAN ORTHODOX IN ORDER TO CLAIM THEM GREEKS GO YOU HAVE NO PLACE IN ALBANIA

  • Visi

    That’s the problem. You are Greek, and you should not be ruling the Albanian Church. We don’t want you! You are not reconstructing the Albanian Orthodox Church, you are just Hellenizing it! You are the worst ambassador of the Albanian interests!

    GO HOME, WE DON’T WANT YOU! WE DECIDE WHO WILL RULE OUR CHURCH NOT THE GREEKS!

  • la

    “My only sin is that I am Greek”

    Fine, I agree, but go top Greece now. How would Greece like to have a Bulgarian patriarch and preach in Bulgarian language only in Macedonia?

    And yeah, he was appointed illegally. Another Greek priest ‘serving’ in Albania went to Serbia and said “Kosovo is Serbia for us Orthodox’

  • gjergji

    archbishop of Albania, Anastasios has support of more than 95% of orthodox people in Albania. we are very grateful to his tremendous work and thankful to Greeks for their support on these unusual times for us. (there are people who don’t want him but mainly with muslim origin or atheists. Lots of them are filled with hate for everything. some paid to do so). for Greeks that finger is pointed to a Greek for me is pointed to the church.