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"The letter of "reprimand" that Saint Porphyrios sent to Elder Paisios is misinformation" is the title of a YouTube video of an audio recording of a conversation between a radio show host and Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou.
In the online article by John Sanidopoulis entitled “Controversial End Time Prophecies by Holy Elders”, mention is made of a retraction by Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou of a statement he’d made 20 years earlier during a public broadcast, with regards to an alleged “letter” of reprimand from St. Porphyrios to St. Paisios, (due to the latter’s concerns about addressing and speaking about “end times” matters with people). This retraction was recorded as a radio interview, but there had been no subtitles in English available in any of the online offerings. Thus, I was able to get it transcribed in English for anyone who may be interested in knowing what the Metropolitan says in his retraction. The conversation went as follows:Bishop: On occasion of the nice show we are
doing, I want to tell you something that you
might not know. We have benefited people my
dear Cleito.
Cleitos: I hope so.
Bishop: But we have scandalized some people,
you know, and I want to tell you an incident; I
think, in the year two thousand; I was then a
young bishop and you were even younger.
Cleitos : 14 years ago.
Bishop: 14 years ago, we did a show again
about the holy fathers and in fact it was about
the three, Porphyrios, Iakovos and Eumenius,
the three I got to know the most.
Cleitos: yes, yes, yes.
Bishop: At one point in our talk, because there
was then in Cyprus a widespread prophecy
that there will be a war in Cyprus, that there will
be a disaster in Cyprus in the year 2000, it was
the millennium then, do you remember then?
Cleitos: yes, yes, yes.
Bishop: The completion of the second
millennium of Christ. The world reached the
peak of its anxiety as it happens at every
completion of a millennium, and therefore
various people began to prophesize either true
or half-truths; half-truths means half-lies.
Cleitos: Scaremongering.
Bishop: Scaremongering. In my attempt, a new
bishop at the time, to stop this terrorism, I
remember I said something, for which I need to
publicly apologize, now that I'm speaking
publicly, since I said it publicly then. I said
something, which is now on the Internet, you
know; they have found our show that we did
back then.
Cleitos: Yes.
Bishop: And they have posted it, only that
fragment is heard; your voice and mine, you
asking me and I answer and roughly say the
following. And I need to apologize and you
should use your judgement and intelligence.
Cleitos: Let me find it and listen to it.
Bishop: Yes. On the Internet it appears as: "the
reprimand Elder Porphyrios issued on Elder
Paisios" why? Because I misrepresented, for
that I apologize deeply, publicly. I conveyed the
revelation of a saintly monk who visited me
before I became a bishop in Mavrovouni, in the
monastery where I was a monk, and it was
then that the Saint Paisios of blessed memory
wrote about 666, about the antichrist about the
card...
Cleitos: Yes, yes.
Bishop: ...the identity card and by the grace of
God, this holy man, God enlightened him, to
put these in writing so that there is no doubt
that they are not his. I say to this monk from
Mount Athos: "but what are the things that
Elder Paisios writes? "This monk is a good
man. He says to me, you know, Elder
Porphyrios does not agree with these and he
supposedly sent Elder Paisios a letter, in which
he wrote: “Elder Paisios, you should stop
prophesizing and I reprimand you because, I
am also a priest, and these things are of no
use and you should not tell them to people”.
That's what I told you back then, now you
know, the demons have gone mad at the glory
of Paisios and because Elder Paisios is
confirmed in many things he said since 1980 all
the way to the day he died and some blogs on
the Internet, that then when we did this show,
there was no Internet, have made it their goal
to demystify Elder Paisios, maybe other Elders
too… and they found this speech.... we sent a
message that this was not our talk, it was
someone else's. I checked and Elder
Porphyrios never spoke like that about Elder
Paisios.
On the contrary, each honored the holiness of
the other. Sometimes Elder Paisios would say
with his good sense of humor, what are you
guys from Athens coming to me, I have a black
and white TV, you have Porphyrios who has a
color one.
Cleitos: Yes, and he showed his humility and
recognition.
Bishop: We also investigated with the people of
the hermitage with whom I have excellent
relations, as you know, in Milesi if there ever
was such a letter from Elder Porphyrios to
Elder Paisios. There never was such a letter.
So it is my duty as a responsible bishop who
honors and respects and is grateful to the
memory of the holy Elders Paisios and
Porphyrios to apologize for this
misunderstanding that occurred.
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