By The TimesLedger
The good people of Woodside have endured a double shock. First they learned that the pastor of the Greek Orthodox Church at 48th Avenue and 44th Street has an unsavory history. Rev. Pangtios Vironis, 60, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two young boys in Pennsylvania in 1970 and was defrocked.
He later moved to Queens and opened up a church that was not sanctioned by the official Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America.
Last week Vrionis was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy studying Greek at this Woodside church. According to the complaint, the priest had his young victim watch a movie in which two men are having sex before he began fondling the youth.
His congregation is both shocked and angry. In the New Testament, the scriptures which form the foundation for the Greek Orthodox faith, Jesus declares: “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”
Two elements of this latest scandal are particularly troubling. Soon after he was thrown out of his church in the 1970s, Vrionis opened his church in Woodside. Although the diocese did not sanction his church, Greek Orthodox officials must have known his history and reputation. Someone should have sounded an alarm.
The parents of the young boy who was allegedly assaulted elected not to tell the police for understandable reasons. That was a mistake. However difficult, the parents should have acted to make sure that Vrionis would not create more victims.
Those who abuse a position of trust to take sexual advantage of children must be held accountable for their crimes. Most important, responsible adults must do everything possible to keep those who confess to sexual abuse as far away as possible from innocent children.
