Alexandrian Patriarch

[matt]

It is feared that the patriarch of Alexandria died today in a helicopter crash. Details here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/11/greece.crash.reut/index.html

[Tracy Mullins]

It has been confirmed that a total of 17 people died in that crash, His Beatitude Patriarch Petros VII included. There was also a couple Metropolitans and several Bishops that perished too (can't remember their names). Lord have mercy!

May their memories be eternal!

/Tracy

[James H.]

Patriarch PETROS VII of Alexandria Perishes in Helicopter Crash
http://www.oca.org/pages/news/news.asp?ID=658

ALSO

Here is a complete (???) list of casualties that was sent to me in a Yahoo Orthodox Forum.

Patriarch Petros of Alexandria and All of Africa
Metropolite Erineos of Pilousiou
Metropolite Chrisostomos of Karthagena
Bishop Nektarios of Madagascar
Archimandrite Arsenios
Archimandrite Kallistratos Economou
Deacon Nektarios Kontogiorgos
Patriarch's legal adviser Georgios Mavros
Patriarch's technical adviser Patroklos Papastefanou
press adviser Georgios Xenoudakis
Patriarch's brother Georgios Papapetrou
Patriarch's personal police guard Spiridon Koursaris.
Major Papanastasiou
Warrant Officer Raptis
Platoon Sergeant Pantelis Hatzivangelis
First Sergeant Panagiotis Golegos
Lieutenant Colonel Dimitris Papaspirou

[ronald j. brotzman]

Memory Eternal, may their memory be eternal. What amazes me, here is the seond in primacy of the Catholic church, if we were to consider that Rome, even though estranged for many years still would have primacy, that not one American National Television system has mentioned this great loss. I mean this in no mean spirited manner, but why can't the Orthodox church, the second largest church in the world even get a ticker line on one of the major stations?

[Tracy Mullins]

I agree, Ronald. I haven't heard a peep about it in the media, other than Internet sources. It's annoying to say the least.

[Endure To Live]

I found out about it from a ticker line on CNN while dining out with my mom and brother last night.

Grace & Peace,
Gareth

[Moses Anthony]

Ronald,
The news reached me through my college daughter; which, I later found an article on the back page of the first section of our local newspaper. I don't remember which wire service ran the story. My first thought in reading your post however (though this may not be in your case), when we seek the recognition of men, we have our reward.

a sinful and unworthy servant

[Olga]

I find it remarkable to find out that American news services have almost ignored this story. Here in Australia I heard the news early on Sunday morning (ACST) on radio. Both daily newspapers, one state-based, one national, this morning (Monday) carried articles. The national paper "The Australian" had its article on page 2, not in its separate "Worldwide" news section. It is likely that future editions will carry more substantial obituaries.

[M A Jackson-Roberts]

For the record, the helicopter crash was
mentioned in the London Times and yesterday's Sunday equivalent.


seeker

[Tracy Mullins]

Well, in MHO, there are 2 things at play where the United States media are concerened:

1. The Orthodox Church does not seem to have a strong presence here. There are Catholic churches on every corner where I live, but one has to drive an hour or more to find an Orthodox Church. I know this varies by location, but by and large, there are still a vast number of people in this country who know nothing about Orthodoxy. The media likes to report things that they think will appeal to the masses. A friend was just telling me that she was telling her protestant family about how the Patriarch of Alexandria was killed, and they replied "The what was killed?"

2. This all happened on Sept.11. Our country was too obsessed with reliving the tragedy of 2001 to care much about world news. I have no problem with having memorials/panekhidas, but it gets on my nerves how the media constantly replays 911 calls, the planes crashing, people screaming and running in the streets. Remembering is one thing, but }forcing people to relive a tramatic event every year is not healthy. Sorry for the little rant, that is just my opinion.

[Olga]

Dare I say that it seems to me to be easier for an Australian to be better-informed about what's happening in the world, than a comparable American. I regularly listen to a public radio station which broadcasts reports from agencies such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands, National Public Radio, as well as our own ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). I agree with Tracy that excessive dwelling on major tragedies like this is unhealthy. By comparison, Australian coverage of anniversaries of the Bali bombings of 2002 has been more low-key, nothing like blanket coverage. Perhaps it's part of our national character.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Let me echo what my Australian & English friends have said. Here also in Canada the death of the Patriarch was reported on the national (CBC) networks and also on at least one other private network. This despite the fact that Canada has a much lower percent of Orthodox than America I believe.
As Tracy says American under-reporting of things Orthodox could be at least partly due to the lack of visible 'newsworthy' presence. But I wonder if this is also partly the problem of general lack of international reporting by American media. Every day I watch the news on the American stations. Before 9/11 I watched CBS, now ABC. The lack of international news especially before Sept 9/11 was quite noticeable. Now (at least ABC) it seems better but it is still less than comparable broadcasts from other countries.
In Christ- Fr Raphael

[James H.]

I think Fr. Raphael has hit more on the problem. American news, by and large, does not concern itself with international events unless they are directly related to us (e.g. Iraq). So, I think the fact that this wasn't covered much on the news (except for a cnn ticker) is a mix of what Fr. Raphael said (and would therefore explain why it was covered in Canada where they do concern themselves more with the world outside of Canada and the US) and what Tracy said in her last post. Let's face it, Orthodoxy is not American. I don't mean this to criticize Orthodoxy or America... it's just that we simply do not have an important presence here. We are not the leaders in anything in the US except perhaps really cool ethnic festivals in Chicago. Honestly, most americans don't care that a few of "Patri-whats?" died off the coast of Greece. I mean, I'm sure they would recognize that this is not happy news and that it is tragic... but there is no relevancy. Let's not act as if Orthodoxy is more relevant to the US culture than it really is. The most visibility we have had was "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"... and that was about being Greek... not Orthodox ("I didn't know Greeks were Jewish" lol). From going on line, it seems to me that Australia has a pretty strong presence of Orthodox (mostly Greek??) when taking into account how small Australia is compared to the US. In other words, I think, proportionally, Australia has a much larger presence of Orthodox than the US does.

As far as 911 goes, I have no wish to diminish the importance of the Bali bombings, but you simply cannot compare that to the impact that 911 had on the world. Don't forget, we had Oklahoma, and we never really obsessed over that. That was a major terrorist bombing, but it did not "shake" the world nor the US. But 911 was more than a bombing... two planes hit two very tall buidings in one of the most important cities in the world. Then a third hit the pentagon, then a 4th was going for the White house which was saved due to the heroic efforts of some selfless men. You cannot compare what Americans were feeling that day (and up to this day) to what they were feeling when the Oklahoma federal Building was bombed. The whole world was impacted by this (although not to the extent that the US, and perhaps Canada, was). I was in Spain when 911 took place and would be there for another 10 months so I know how Europe reacted and it was headline news for sometime. I was also not affected by US News media during that year abroad.

I'm not trying to excuse the US media for its obsessive ans sensationalist nature, I'm jsut saying that you cannot compare the impact of that day to any other terrorist attack. I think if the same thing happened in Australia, the media would act similarly although probably not to the same degree (but let's not forget where Rupert Murdoch is from http://www.monachos.net/mb/clipart/wink.gif). And after having visited London a few times this summer and talking to my girlfriend who lived there for a couple months, I no longer think that the US is the king of sensationalism (apologies to my British friends).I know, they are all equally tragic, I agree (just like the Oklahoma bombing was and the terroist attack on the WTC some years before 911)and I am not diminishing the importance of other terror attacks... but c'mon.

There is no consipiracy to slight Orthodox in the US and abroad (Christian's by and large love conspiracy theories... each group feels more picked on than the next... we all love to be the victim).

There's for my ranting.

James

[M A Jackson-Roberts]

Out of interest, may I ask (or whether) how the American (ie US) media have handled the atrocity in Beslan 's School No.1 last week, and whether anything was made of Ossetian = Orthodox, Ingush or Chechnyan = Muslim loyalties?

seeker

[James H.]

While I cannot compare it to what was on the news in other countries, I can say that it was headline news for several days, including follow-up on the video footage that came out (sensaltionalism). Anyone who watched the news on a daily basis knew very well this was going on.

[Moses Anthony]

The news media here in the USA treated -in some reports- the tragedy in the Russian school as a matter of terrorism. At least one story had the tinge of incompetence by the Russian military as the cause of so many people perishing. However; no one has as of yet pointed to something in the American news media which is an undeniable fact. Anything involving the Church is treated as non-consequential unless it's something such as the Catholic sex abuse scandal. Or perhaps someone they wish to ridicule & persecute such as the Rev.'s Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, or the former head of Operation Rescue, Randall Terry. All other factors take a back seat to the particular biases of the writers and producers, unless of course it's an item they just cannot ignore, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch's visit.
Take heart, be encouraged, and give thanks for Orthodox news services.

[ronald j. brotzman]

I am also amazed that very seldom, whether it be the Russian story or the Sudan story, the American press does not state that the deaths are caused by Muslim fanatics, the genocide in the Sudan is by Muslim supremisists, I have even written to FOX news comlaining about this but have gotten no response.