Beloved children in the Lord,

We have come today as your archbishop and spiritual leader and we have presided in this holy church of the Virgin Mary Koumariotissa and we have prayed together with you for two reasons: a) the annual feast-day of this holy Church, at which time we also wished to bless in person, as is customary, the faithful of this parish, and b) to express first to them, but also, more broadly, to our entire beloved community here, our paternal sympathy and the moral support of the Mother Church following the recent desecration of the graves of our beloved deceased, who held faith in common and who repose in the picturesque cemetery of the parish of Neohorion.

Are they reposing? -- In a manner of speaking. They are reposing only euphemistically, because there are those who dared to disturb the peace even of our dead. Even in their graves they did not leave them in peace. Rather, they smashed the crosses -- symbols of our expectation and faith in the Resurrection of the dead -- and dug out and profaned their remains.

And the question is raised: Why? For what reason? What fault was it of our dead? To what extend did "we who are alive, who are left" (1 Thess. 4:15) insult them, if, in fact, they did this uncivilized -- to use a milder expression -- act in order to seek revenge against us?

Are we not, in every way, law abiding citizens of this country? Do we not perform our obligations towards our country to the best of our ability? Do we not honour the name of our country in which we live with honesty, diligent work, our high degree of civilization, our beautiful customs and traditions, and with our rich history? Have we not suffered enough without being at all to blame, except that we are Greek by origin and Orthodox in faith, and because of this -- being a minority, that is -- we are regarded as a negotiable crowbar in the relations between neighbouring and allied countries? Is it not enough that so few of us have remained here because of this last point? Should we be expected to endure more? Indeed, should this be expected of our deceased who "are asleep" awaiting the common resurrection?