By George Koumoulli
If I remember well from my school years, it is the Apostle Paul the father of the saying, the “deceased is not justified” (by sin). That is, the deceased is acquitted. But to be precise, the church fathers categorically affirm that the deceased is freed from sin not because his iniquities were forgiven, but because as a dead man he is no longer able to sin.
In modern times, This saying suggests that it is not right to talk badly about the dead. In other words, a dogma has been created – not only in Cyprus but also in many other countries – that does not consider it appropriate to criticize the life and state of the deceased.
These days, we have witnessed this doctrine. The language of all politicians, without exception, drips honey for the newly asleep late Archbishop. As if by magic, all politicians and parties idealize him. They have already forgotten his involvement in politics, his involvement in the “golden” passport scandals, his contacts with the underworld, and his passion to maximize, at all costs, the profits of church businesses.
At today’s funeral of the primate of the Church, I do not know, of course, what exactly the PD will say when he will deliver the funeral. I anticipate, however, that he will weave the praise of the Archbishop and one who does not know the recent history of the Church of Cyprus, will conclude, listening to Anastasiades, that Chrysostom II was flawless, a Holy Man of the Church who collected money with effort and sweat, for the prosperity of his flock.
In short, Anastasiades will tell us that the Archbishop did only well in his career. We forget, or we do not realize, that what someone did alive continues to weigh on him no matter how much he is painted in the funerals by the sophisticates of limitation and flattery who, by the way, abound in Cyprus.
According to sociologists, this doctrine (or taboo) stems from centuries-old beliefs about the afterlife. For example, in the time of Aristotle, the degradation of the inheritance of a deceased person was considered to devalue the life that this person had lived and, in so doing, degraded the quality of his afterlife.
Nowadays, this doctrine tends to fade due to, mainly, the development of social media (NCDs).
When a prominent political or religious figure dies, those who hated this person resort to the internet and immediately proclaim how happy they are that this person died, how ungrateful and hypocritical he was, how they hope that his body will be burned in hell, etc.
On the other hand, there are of course those who will praise the deceased. This phenomenon applies, of course, to the death of our Archbishop.
Anyone who has access to facebook will find that the views of the Cypriot people about the person of Chrysostom II are manifestly divergent. I believe that someone who does not know the life and state of the Archbishop will be informed about him more objectively and comprehensively by the NGOs, rather than by the expected exuberant funeral of Anastasiades who will have written it making a great effort to self-censor.
Perhaps the most classic example of the role of NGOs for the death toll is the funeral of the archdeacon of Cyprus, Dimitris Ioannides. His coffin was wrapped in the Greek flag! The funeral was delivered by D. Karakostas, a far-right, university professor of Politology and Constitutional Law at the Panteion School of Political Sciences and politician. Among other things, Karakostas told us that the invisible dictator – as Ioannidis was called – was “a worthy child of the fatherland” and that “future generations will thank him for his national work”.
All these graphic descriptions of Karakostas were mocked and ridiculed mainly by the NGOs.
I will not forget a post that indicated to Karakostas that he failed to add the adjective “Turkish” before the “future generations”. In conclusion, we must appreciate that in these cases, NCDs play a balancing role, since we are informed not only about the pluses of the deceased but also about his minuses.
And we come to the heart of the matter: the deceased is not justified, in the sense that we should not talk badly about him? The answer to this question is a deafening “No.” How can a Hitler, a Ioannidis, a corrupt politician, a murderer, a rapist, a paedophile be vindicated?
All of them do not deserve respect due to the fact that they died! No one is holy, neither in death nor in life, and we must voice our grievances to cure a flimsy state.
No one should be silent by suppressing their pain or grievance or the injustice they feel because their abuser has died.
The dead can continue to hurt us long after they are gone. When a great injustice has been done – say an act of child molestation allegedly committed by the deceased – the failure to correct the record out of respect for the dead perpetuates the injustice and, at the same time, makes it more difficult to combat, in this case, paedophilia.
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of CypriumNews.
