In Italy - Metropolitan Bishop Simeon brings religious dissent to Europe

The Metropolitan Bishop of Western and Central Europe Simeon, against whom the Holy Synod has signals for abuse amounting to BGN 300,000 in State subsidies, has brought religious dissent to Europe with his decision to expel two priests.

Hundreds of Bulgarians from the parishes of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in Rome and Vienna strongly opposed the punishment of the priests in their parishes and asked Bishop Simeon to be held accountable. This became clear from the letters of the trustees sent to Patriarch Maxim and the Holy Synod, to the Prime Minister and the Chairwoman of the National Assembly via the Religion Directorate at the Council of Ministers.

Citizens reminded that the unfairly punished priests had their full confidence and that expelling them is the most severe punishment after excommunicating them and that it was not imposed even at the time of the schism in the Holy Synod. The people who signed the letter rejected the accusations of Metropolitan Bishop Simeon that the priests - Treasurer Ivan Petkin and Archimandrite Clement Bobchev - are dissenters who do not respect the hierarchy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

Moreover, they suspect Metropolitan Bishop Simeon of having personal economic interests since Clement Bobchev and Ivan Petkin  were able to collect €1 mln in order to build a temple in Vienna and for the development of the church and a school in Rome.

The displeased people reminded that this injustice can be corrected because the penalties have to be approved by the Holy Synod in Sofia this week.

A month ago, the Metropolitan Bishop of Western and Central Europe Simeon condemned Treasurer Ivan Petkin to “defrocking without excommunication." Two days earlier, the court ordered the same sanction to be imposed on Archimandrite Clement Bobchev, parish priest of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church "St. St.Cyril and Methodius" in Rome.

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