Bishop Augustine (Kantiotes)

“For truth and censure are from him; and he would bring forth my judgment to an end”.

The name of bishop of Florina father Augustine Kantiotes is known to the panhellenic region and abroad for his multifarious struggles that he conducted and conducts for the purpose of restoring society and the glory of the Church. For more than a century he is struggling in various directions, without however retreating, with leader the Lord Jesus Christ, with prototype the fathers of the Church and with firm canon the God-inspired canon of Holy Scripture.

A particular mark of the struggles of the hierarch and bishop of Florina is censure. According to the word of apostle Paul, to atheists and antichrists, to insulters and God-mockers, censure is a scandal and foolishness, but to the faithful believers who love the Church and want to see her free and vibrant, it is a boast. Thus, others on account of censure many reprimand the bishop in various ways and many comment on him irritably. Others, however, love him, humbly accept his rebukes and are benefited by them. To these is appropriate the proverbial saying; “Rebuke a wise man, and he shall love you” (Proverbs 9:8).

Now, while this was, is and shall be the journey of the written and spoken word, as the same (bishop) confesses, recently the accusation was machinated that he did not censure or does not censure or that he censures the weak and not the powerful or that his motives are worldly, political etc.

To this accusation we deemed it necessary to answer with the texts themselves. From the 428 issues of the “Christian Spark”, which is published since 1942, we selected texts in which the impartial reader sees the firm line that the bishop follows, his basic principles of censuring outside and apart from persons, situations, dangers, and interests, the motivations that are not outside of his religious mission, and the aim, which is the repentance of the sinner and scandal-maker, the protection of the others or of both. The censure that the metropolitan of Florina performs is not insult, nor condemnation, but a responsible mission and a debt of love.

***

Many think that censuring is bad thing, which is done at our expense. That is wrong. Not only does it not harm us, but it even benefits us. To be sure, censure is not always pleasant. In all cases, however, it is beneficial. It doesn’t seek what is temporary but what is permanent.

“The sick person”, says sacred Chrysostom, “he who has a fever, who is in danger of the ultimate danger, is not benefited, if I tell him that tomorrow you become king. That which the ill person seeks first is his relief from the fearful disease. And I, imitating the doctor, prepare medicines, the bitter medicines. I use a word that is strong, censuring. I shake the conscience, I threaten with fire and brimstone. I strike the mallet hard in order to heal, in order to produce silver and gold vessels. Yes! The heavy, censuring word adjusts souls. It is preferable for my listener to be burned by my caustic censuring than for him to burn eternally by the flame of that hell.”

Another example, in which one sees what is censuring, is the following; “A person is dirty, untidy and someone tells him: Be careful, you’re dirty, untidy! That is censure, and it isn’t bad. Surely the one censured feels shame, worry, but he is corrected and with censure he is protected from worse evils. Moreover, we have censure when a doctor tells the sick person that he is suffering from purulent tonsillitis and the sick person takes his measures, takes medications and is healed. And in both instances neither does censure perform a bad work, because it shows the true condition in which the one censured is found, nor does the one censured feels that he is being insulted, but quite the opposite he feels the need to thank the one censuring, because with his censuring he protected him from further unpleasant consequences.

Something similar to this is spiritual censuring, too. And if censuring is necessary for our health, for our external appearance, much more is it indispensable for our spiritual journey and the clear knowledge of the evil urges and habits that operate inside us. Still more, the teacher of the Church, the preacher of the divine word and interpreter of holy Scripture, he not only has the duty to teach, but also to censure, because holy Scripture, the God-inspired word, as St. Paul says is beneficial “unto teaching and unto censure”. This censure is inspired by love and has as its aim to restore and educate spiritually the one being censured, so that he may become a whole, complete person of God. Wise Solomon writes: “Censure a wise man and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8). The wise and prudent person accepts censure, because considers it necessary, as an x-ray of his psychical condition (or an x-ray of the condition of his soul). Having this in view too, Paul charges Timothy: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, censure, rebuke…” (2 Tim. 4:2). When, however, will censuring be done, who will conduct it, and how, is a serious issue.

Censure should be done not when my personal interests are affected, nor when my name is insulted, but when the interests of God are affected, when the name of God is defamed and insulted, when the laws of God are trampled. Then censure is an imperative duty.

But who will conduct this work?

To begin with, those who devoted their life to the Church and live for the Church, those who with feeling and consequence work for the spreading and glory of the Church, those have anxiety for the salvation of souls and go from place to place to find the lost (sheep), those who are real shepherds and teachers who sacrifice themselves for the flock and don’t exploit the flock – all these people are obligated to conduct censure.

But the most difficult consideration is how they will conduct it. What will be the motivations of the one censuring? Perhaps self-projection? The defamation of the one censured? Vindictiveness? Or the satisfaction of evil instincts” No. Censure ought to begin with love and have the truth as its content. Only then is censure salvific, its aim holy, and the results marvelous. Only then is the one censured benefited, is chastely educated and corrected. But also only is orthodox dogma preserved intact, which is the source and support of orthopraxia, that is, of right action.

Surely censure should be performed for all things done secretly and particular places, for this reason censure must be done in private. For all those things, however, that are said and done publicly and that scandalize the consciences of the faithful believers and that provoke corruption, censure is conducted publicly in accordance with the word of the apostle Paul: “Those who sin before all censure, so that the rest have fear” (1 Tim. 5:20).

With this mentality father Augustine censured during the dictatorship of Metaxa. He censured during the Italian and German occupation and many times he was in danger of the invaders, not politically, but religiously and ethically. But censure was not directed only to persons standing in high places in the state; he directed himself also to persons standing in high places in the Church, archpriests, archbishops and patriarchs.

He always censured moving within the religious and ethical circle, having as principle the Chrysostomian word: “Make friends for the sake of Jesus and enemies for the sake of Jesus”. “The bishop does not judge”, he says, “the bishop does not have the authority to judge the personal life of anyone, he doesn’t enter in to the bed chambers of the high-priests, he doesn’t do the work of an ‘uncorker’…He censures, however, those actions of clergy and laity, and indeed of those who possess official seats, which are performed during full noon-time and scandalize the whole people. Condemning doesn’t benefit, the censuring of those, however, of whom it is proved that they sin in public, is salvific and anticipates the further corruption of society”.

Censure never is supported by scandal-monsters. Without at least two eyewitnesses and ear-witnesses, who are ethically and ecclesiastically blameless, no accusation against a cleric can stand.

Many times there come to light scandals, which are based on rumors, without eyewitnesses and ear-witnesses presenting themselves as witnesses. He (bishop Augustine) never became an accuser of such kind of scandals, nor did he base himself on rumors in order to conduct censuring. Various journalists and other ecclesiastical factors wanted him as an advocate and pioneer in their struggles, but he himself didn’t get involved, because their dispositions were not pure and edifying.

He never resorted and does not resort to mud-slinging. Mud-slinging is not censure, but the minimization of the one censured in a dishonorable manner. Quite the opposite, many who studied in great detail his written and spoken discourse, did not find a single derisive remark, resorted to a mud-slinging campaign in order to diminish his authority and defame his name. The censuring of the bishop are based on unshakable proofs, and for this reason, whenever he was led to punitive and ecclesiastical courts, he always came forth victor having the truth on his side.

Father Augustine censured and censures always with pure motivations. In the article of “Spitha” (“Spark”) “Censurers, but not “uncorkers” his motivations are clear. But in a multitude of articles of “Spitha” and of “The Cross” and other books the impartial reader sees the aspiration of the Bishop to see the Church wholly good, wholly beautiful, “not having spot or wrinkle or some-such thing”, to see society released from scandals that provoke bleeding and provoke corruption, to see our fatherland with Christ as governor. This aspiration moves him to censure, for a Church free and vibrant and a healthy society.

It would have been pleasant for father Augustine, as sacred Chrysostom also says, to develop subjects that delight the readers and listeners and not to displease them. It would have liked to play the flute, and the bishop plays it beautifully, but before the dangers, before the wolves that threaten the flock of Christ, he leaves aside the flute and grabs the slingshot. When ravening seek to tear the flock to pieces, we are obligated to leave the flute, the peaceful word, and to go down into the struggles, into battle against the fearful enemies. And this so that our enemies do not win even one sheep from our pen.