Sex-Abuse Case against Manitoba Archbishop Seraphim Storheim on Hold

______________________________

A high-ranking former orthodox archbishop, who has pleaded not guilty, must wait until the new year to learn if he’ll go to trial on historical Manitoba sex abuse charges. Seraphim Storheim appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom this week for the start of his preliminary hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed. A court-ordered ban prevents specific details from being published. Defence lawyer Jeff Gindin told the Winnipeg Free Press the evidence was presented on Thursday and Friday, but the case has now adjourned until 18 January for lawyers to make final arguments. The judge will then render his decision.

Storheim is accused of abusing two teenage boys while he was a priest in Winnipeg 30 years ago. He remains free on bail with several conditions, including having no contact with children. Storheim was the highest-ranking Canadian cleric in the Orthodox Church in America until church officials suspended him last November, days after Winnipeg police laid charges against him following a lengthy investigation into allegations which only recently emerged. None of the charges has been proven and he is presumed innocent. A U.S.-based victims group spoke out following Storheim’s arrest, angry that a parish was using a church website to raise defence funds for Storheim. A Vancouver parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in America (sic) posted three messages of support for Storheim, including one with an address in Edmonton to send funds for his defence. Last December, the Orthodox Church distanced itself from the Vancouver parish with a statement that said in part, “The Archdiocese of Canada for the Orthodox Church in America is not in any way associated with any legal fund or other defensive effort being set up to aid Archbishop Seraphim”.

18 November 2011

Winnipeg (MB) Free Press

As quoted in the Ottawa (ON) Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/abuse+case+against+Manitoba+archbishop+Seraphim+Storheim+hold/5734862/story.html

Editor’s Note:

There’s NOTHING posted on this on oca.org. NOTHING. If that doesn’t prove to you that the Syosset apparat, SVS, and JP’s konvertsy commandos hold you in contempt and pee on you every chance that they get, nothing will. They KNEW about this the moment that it was announced and they decided to keep it from you. I hope that His Holiness notices how these creeps try to sweep everything under the rug… including tolerating “parish visits” which would violate Storheim’s bail conditions… there are kids in our parishes, after all.

A lawyer friend said to me that if there was no evidence, if the case was to be dismissed, it would’ve happened. I was told that the Crown is probably giving the defence a “last chance” to come up with exculpatory evidence. The charges are serious, after all. It’s only eight weeks… in legal terms, that’s the speed of light. It doesn’t look good…

This is too much. The konvertsy point fingers at us and tell us how immoral and depraved we are in comparison to them. They applaud secrecy… they applaud the attempt to weasel out of telling the “whole truth and nothing but the truth”. THAT should tell you something…

BMD

Advertisement

18 November 2011. A Chat with Your Editor: “The Fruits of Four Years of Blogging: Discretion and Good Sense, Above All Else, in ALL Your Internet Affairs”

______________________________

On 7 November, it was the fourth birthday of this website. To put it anther way, we’re now in the fifth year of our operation. A day or so ago, we went over three million hits. According to Quantcast, I have about 36,000 monthly individual readers (not hits). Look at the graphs:

VFR monthly readership

******

OCA official website monthly readership

******

Click here to check it for yourself, if you must… and here for oca.org, as a comparison. Do note that I’m being “transparent” and that the OCA (and their Renovationist/rightwing claque) is NOT. In short, the OCA skulks around as if it has something nasty and low to hide. Unfortunately, I fear that it does (the whispered history of Dmitri Royster is proof of that).

Let’s sit down and talk about “Internet Savvy”… “Internet Street Smarts”, if you will. In the beginning, I’ll admit that I was green as grass and made many errors due to trusting people overly much. Sad experience has taught me much. Not only is the virtual world as “fallen” as the “real world” is, it’s more so, as it’s much easier to conceal one’s identity on the ‘net. Trial and error (a lot of the former and too much of the latter) has taught me that there are evil and nasty sorts out there who use the Internet as a weapon against their perceived foes. For instance, it’s much easier to spread calumny anonymously on the web than it is by using any other method. It isn’t necessary to expose yourself as Ray Velencia did in openly passing a parishioner’s e-mails to the OCA Metropolitan Council… the more clever sorts use “sock puppets” and compliant trolls (such as Al Green and “Hank Leaf”) to attack dissident/unwanted parishioners.

What can one do? Firstly, trust no OCA or ROCOR clergy. NONE. NO… they’re not BAD men… they’re just ordinary weak ones, and a Karlgut or Lebedeff could lean on them, and they’d cave in order to “preserve their priesthood”. The rationale of the weak-reed priest is, “I can’t compromise my ministry for the sake of one person. It’s better to see one person suffer than to see my whole parish suffer”. This is the “Caiphas Option”, and it’s all too common. Some are more untrustworthy than others are… I’d say that the least trustworthy are OCA clergy from the Dioceses of the South and the West (they were under the thumb of Nikolai Soraich and Joseph Fester, need I say more?), followed closely by ROCOR clergy in Southern California (those within Lebedeff’s reach) and OCA/ROCOR clergy in the District (you have “double trouble” in the shape of JP and his puppeteer Potapov). Be careful what you say to priests… it can end up on the internet via nameless “sock puppet” posters. Velencia was a doltish exception… I have no doubt that Karlgut and Piggy Iggy told him how to do it “right”, but Velencia arrogantly went off and did it “his way”, which led to a legal settlement. It’s sad to have to write it, but that’s what I see, and I’m going to tell you the truth of the matter.

Secondly, guard your primary e-mail address. I give it out to no one… no one. You should do the same thing. Malware can come piggybacked to an e-mail, and that’s no lie, ask any geek. I won’t open “strange” e-mail… I trash it without mercy. If a clergyman tries to natter you to death… spam them. DON’T ARGUE. There are too many liars, enthusiasts, and careerists amongst the clergy… PROTECT YOURSELF. If a clergyman becomes argumentative, spam him, and forget it. If anyone asks you for someone else’s e-mail, particularly clergy, refuse them. YOU SHOULD NEVER GIVE SOMEONE ELSE’S E-MAIL ADDRESS TO ANYONE, PARTICULARLY NOSY CLERGYMEN. You don’t know whether they’re on the up-and-square. I’ve stepped into one too many “virtual cowpats”… I’m passing on my sad experience (I don’t want YOU to end up with shit on your boots… that WILL happen). Remember… weak people, not wicked people, commit most evil. Don’t hate the overly-inquisitive, but don’t “feed” them, either.

Thirdly, sign all communications with your proper name… I do! Fr Vsevolod Chaplin, who’s the main confidant to His Holiness (have you noted how the ignorant konvertsy NEVER mention Fr Vsevolod?), correctly points up that all anonymous posting is pernicious. I agree. That’s why OCA Truth, which is run by the gutless cowards Jesse Cone and Rod Dreher, is fundamentally unbelievable. Mind you, you shouldn’t put up too much information in your “About” page on your blog either (if anything at all… I learned the hard way on that one, too).

Fourthly, and finally, NEVER answer personal questions from an internet interlocutor, and never ask them yourself. I found out about that by answering such questions innocently, and seeing my confidence raped. NEVER answer personal questions and NEVER ask them. As far as my internet interlocutors are concerned, I don’t ask them personal questions… if you want me to know something, you’ll tell me, and that’s that. I won’t pry.

In short, use your good sense and discretion. An internet Nosey Parker is no different from their cousins in the real world. If we all refused to answer such creepozoids, the ‘net would be a safer and saner place. There be dragons out there, kids… take a care, and do take my hand, it won’t be so lonely that way…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 18 November 2011

Albany NY    

18 November 2011. Dickie Wood Surfaces! Hobnobs with Oligarch Scum at 10th Anniversary of the Vanil Restoran in Moscow

******

******

______________________________

There’s been no official OCA news on Dickie Wood… well, he’s surfaced at the 10th anniversary party for the Vanil Restoran in Moscow. Perspirin’ minds wonder if Vlad Berzansky Jr and the Blunder’s men were present, too. Take a gander at his “monastic robes”. This is too much of a muchness. We shouldn’t be hobnobbing with bum-kissing pro-Western oligarch trash, and that’s that. It does tell you much about Dickie, doesn’t it? Is the Syosset/SVS apparat taking “stupid pills?” This wasn’t the brightest idea, after all. He looks rather chipper, and not in any bad health at all. Oh, yes… it’s quite the MONASTIC venue, isn’t it? These pigs party on your nickel, kids… I thought that you’d like to know that…

Click here for the original website, if you wish to check me. This is too much of a muchness… I’ve got to go out and hurl to clear the shit out of my system, kids… and so do you.

BMD

18 November 2011. A Distant Image Glimpsed Darkly… St Platon’s DID Exist…

______________________________

More “slices of life” from the former St Platon Seminary in Tenafly NJ. The future Fr Hubiak père is at the left of the above image…

******

______________________________

Remember why St Platon’s had to close in 1924. The closure was due to bad loans made by Archbishop Alekdandr Nemolovsky. Shades of the Honesdale Loan, isn’t it? Note well that the OCA central apparat is STILL secretive about finances… and where is the OCA getting the money to pay for JP’s “evaluation?” If we don’t pay close attention, it’ll be “back to the future” time, again. What would we lose this time around? Oh… do make certain that Syosset has NO access to your accounts and funds… one should be prudent, after all…

BMD

A Kind Note to an Enquirer:

Due to caution (and to protect my sources), I don’t give out my e-mail address, and I NEVER give out my contacts’ names and e-mail addresses. If you’re innocent, so be it, but I have to protect myself and my friends from the likes of Karlgut, Piggy Iggy, Velencia, JP, Reardon, and Bobby. We live in “interesting times”, unfortunately…

BMD