Cathedral Dean Father Gounaris is Accused of a Violent Tantrum
NEW YORK – Leo Hatzitachi, an employee of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of New York, has alleged that Father Anastasios Gounaris, Dean of the Cathedral, behaved violently against him. The police went to the Cathedral.
Gounaris allegedly grabbed Hatzitachi’s cell phone and threw it against the wall. Police directed Gounaris and Hatzitachi to stop fighting and not be 500 feet from each other, but both of them work in the same area at the Cathedral. Efforts were made from the Cathedral and the Archdiocese to cover up the incident.
TNH left two voice messages on Hatzitachi’s cell phone, left a telephone message for Gounaris at the Cathedral, and sent him a written note with copies to Archbishop Demetrios of America, Bishop Andonios of Fasiane, Chancellor of the Archdiocese, Bishop Sebastian of Zela, Chief Secretary of the Holy Eparchial Synod, and Steven Cherpelis, parish council president. None of them returned TNH messages except Bishop Andonios, who initially attempted to downplay the incident, calling it “rumors.” He also said that “Fr. Gounaris felt threatened by Mr. Hatzitachi and called the police.” The entire interview of Andonios is published at the end of this article.
Sources from within the Archdiocese and also close to the Hatzitachi Family told TNH that the incident occurred in the office of Steve Hantzarides, administrator of the Cathedral. The fight started when Hatzitachi told Gounaris to not bother his father, Evangelos, has worked as the sexton of the Cathedral the last 17 years. Until recently, Leo’s mother was working at the Cathedral also. Leo is working as a supervisor of the Cathedral’s buildings and employees, including his own father.{56006}
The Hatztitachises came from Albania and they live at the Cathedral’s apartment tower, where Gounaris and Bishop Sebastian also live. Lately, Gounaris has been behaving badly towards his sexton Evangelos Hatztitachi, wanting to fire him. He had given him the task of cleaning the Holy Chalice and he wasn’t satisfied with the way Hatzitachi cleaned it and he screamed at him. Leo told Gounaris to stop bothering his father and it was then that Gounaris reacted violently against him grabbed Leo’s cell phone because he thought he was recording him and threw it away, pulling at his wrist.
Gounaris told Leo not to say anything to anybody. Leo went to the Archdiocese and he met with Bishops Andonios of Fasiane and Sebastian of Zela.
He spent a long time with Bishop Sebastian. Andonios called Gounaris and told him to ask forgiveness from Leo and also instructed him not to fire anybody. {56018}
A short time ago Gounaris fired the secretary of the Cathedral and hired and new one. Although he was told to hire someone who knows also Greek because there are parishioners and others who communicate with the Cathedral in Greek, he did exactly the opposite by hiring someone who doesn’t know Greek.
Archbishop Demetrios was informed of the violent incident at the Cathedral. Demetrios found himself in a very difficult position because he handpicked Gounaris, despite the fact he knew details about his doings in Indianapolis.
TNH had written extensively about Gounaris on June 15. TNH had reported, among other things, that, “rifts, divisions, and turmoil” plagued the Holy Trinity parish in Indianapolis, IN during the pastorship of Rev. Anastasios ‘Tasos’ Gounaris as hundreds of documents acquired by TNH reflect.
The documents disclose problems that included verbal and physical attacks from Gounaris against parishioners to the point that “he had to be physically restrained by others.” In one instance, Gounaris reportedly pushed and threw to the floor a parish council member, Angelo Zarvas, during parish council elections on December 12, 1999.
Gounaris believed that Zarvas had no authority to be present at the election.
Zarvas, however, showed Gounaris the Uniform Parish Regulations, which allowed the attendance of any parish member. Following his exchange with Gounaris, Zarvas got up from his seat to assist one of the elderly members. When he returned to the table where he had been seated, his chair had been removed.
In an affidavit, Zarvas described the events as follows: “I picked up another chair and started to walk back to the point where I was at. Father Taso came over quickly and I think that is at the point when he just charged at me so quickly. I said, ‘what’s wrong, Father Taso? What’s wrong?’ And he pushed me and I fell to the ground.”
Following that incident, Zarvas was approached by Gounaris’ wife, who was crying. She apologized for her husband’s actions and explained that he was upset over the election. Zarvas described the interaction between the priest’s wife, the priest, and himself as follows: “While I was sitting there with Presbytera, all of a sudden Father Taso came back up over to where we were. The three of us were together. He started kissing me on the face – even licking me – and said he loved me, and I asked, I said, ‘please, please, leave me alone, leave me alone.’ And the presvytera says, ‘Father, that’s enough. That’s enough. That’s enough, Father. Leave him alone. Leave him alone, Father.’ He finally went away. I don’t know what that was all about, but it was very, very upsetting. [And] I did not understand why he would do such a thing [and lick my face]. It was beyond comprehension. He did many – many things that we couldn’t understand.”
Gounaris told his parishioners that he did not push Zarvas, but that the latter tripped on the chair and fell down.
This is the text of TNH’s interview with Bishop Andonios:
TNH: Would you please tell us about the incident at the Holy Trinity Cathedral involving Fr. Gounaris and Leo Hatzichaki?
BA: What I know is that a rumor was spread that something more serious and bigger took place, from what actually happened. The day of the incident we had them both here at the Archdiocese.
Leo came to see Bishop Sebastian of Zela and I called Fr. Anastasios to find out exactly what happened.
Unfortunately it has gone out that Fr. Gounaris hit him; that Leo fell to the floor and Fr. Gounaris was on top of him, but nothing of these happened. Neither of them told us anything like that.
Leo said that Fr. Gounaris grabbed him by his hand and Fr. Tasos said that he only took his cell phone because he did want Leo the record him.
TNH: Did the police go to the Cathedral?
BA: Yes, Fr. Anastasios called them because he felt threatened by Leo.
TNH: Did Leo go to the hospital?
BA: I do not know because when he came here he spent many hours with Bishop Sebastian.
TNH: Is Leo of Albanian descent?
BA: Yes, he is.
TNH: What does he do at the Cathedral?
BA: I think he cleans and helps because his father is a sexton at the church. Leo is part of the personnel of the Cathedral and he helps with the different receptions that take place there and I think that he cleans also if I am not mistaken.
TNH: Would you tell us what Leo told you?
BA: Leo told Bishop Sebastian that Fr. Anastasios spoke to him in screaming way and that caused the incident. Fr. Anastasios says that he grabbed Leo’s phone and he put it in a box; but Leo said that he grabbed his wrist.
TNH: Whom do you believe?
BA: Hantzarides (the administrator) who was present as a witness and saw it told me that it is not the way Leo said it happened. As we understood that day, the problem was resolved, because Fr. Anastasios invited him and some members of the board of trustees and they spoke. I think the issue has been resolved.
TNH: Do you think it’s a shame that police is called to the Cathedral for this type of incidents?
BA: I was not there to know, but if someone fells that the other threatens him. If I were in the same position I would probably have done the same.
TNH: Did Fr. Gounaris feel that Leo threatened him?
BA: Yes.
TNH also communicated with Hantzarides, who said “I can’t comment at all. I am not authorized to speak on behalf of the Cathedral and second no incident took place,” and said questions should be directed to Cherpelis or Gounaris.
Though TNH reminded Hantzarides that the incident took place in his office, he said “I have no authority to speak on behalf of the Cathedral.”