IL-- Ex-Chicago priest arrested on sex charge

immediate release: Thursday, June 25

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected], [email protected])

An Orthodox pastor has just been arrested on a sex charge involving a teenager. Now, it’s time for his former church colleagues and supervisors in Chicago to take action.

http://www.wfmj.com/story/29390060/pastor-accused-of-fondling-man-in-boardman-restaurant

http://www.vindy.com/news/2015/jun/24/youngstown-pastor-faces-charge-of-sexual/

Rev. Archim Andoni, a Chicago native, now lives in Pittsburgh and works at a Youngstown church. But he has also worked in Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa and “mostly in the Chicago area,” according to the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-11145504.html

Rev. Andoni, who also goes by James Callozzo, was a monk at St. Savas Monastery in Libertyville, Illinois. That monastery was recently in the news when a novice was arrested for soliciting sex with a minor online.

http://www.snapnetwork.org/victims_to_leaflet_at_orthodox_cathedral

Andoni/Callozzo was  

--at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, Massachusetts from 1960-1965. (It’s founder, Archimandrite Panteleimon Metropoulos, a.k.a. John Metropoulos, has been accused of sexual assault by many of the monks at HTM over the years, some of them teenagers.)

http://www.pokrov.org/sex-scandal-at-monastery-in-brookline/

http://www.pokrov.org/founder-of-holy-transfiguration-monastery-named-controversial-by-watchdog-group/

http://www.pokrov.org/holy-transfiguration-monastery-experience/

http://www.pokrov.org/decision-of-the-synod-of-bishops-of-rocor-concerning-holy-transfiguration-monastery-in-brookline-ma/

--associated with an unusual number of Orthodox jurisdictions: Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Jerusalem Patriarchate, Serbian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, Ukrainian Orthodox Church. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-11145504.html

http://nativityofchrist.net/about-us/clergy/

It’s very unlikely this is a “one time” offense. We beg Orthodox officials in each of these states to show courage and compassion by actively seeking out anyone else who may have seen, suspected or suffered Rev. Andoni’s crimes.

It’s the moral and civic duty of those with information or suspicions about sex crimes to call police. Church officials gave Rev. Andoni access to innocent kids and vulnerable adults. He may have assaulted some of them. So church officials need to step up, speak out, reach out and try to find and help his victims while also helping law enforcement convict him.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747, [email protected])