Plan to rebuild Greek Orthodox church at Ground Zero remains Puzzle
19/8/2010
By Richard C. Dujardin
Journal Staff Writer
NEWPORT, R.I. –– As controversy continues to swirl about the plans by a Muslim group to build an 11-story mosque a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, some Greek Orthodox Christians here and in New York say they are puzzled as to why there has been so little progress in the rebuilding of yet another house of worship. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, a tiny, four-story building that had been located directly in front of the second tower, at 155 Cedar St. was destroyed in the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. It has yet to be rebuilt, despite assurances in July 2008, regarding a tentative plan to rebuild the church just east of its original site.
Those negotiations fell through, however, with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey saying the church was demanding too much money, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of New York asserting that Port Authority had apparently decided to renege on the deal and refused to meet with church officials even to discuss it.
The Rev. George Economou, the pastor of St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in Newport, said he learned of the problem this week when he read a story in the Greek Hellenic Voice.
“I, for one, am very upset, and I’m sure that others are concerned. I am very puzzled why the Muslims would be allowed to build a center so close to Ground Zero while a church – that stood at that site many years even before the World Trade Center – would get such a run-around.
“From a legal perspective we are a free country, and people are free to express their faith. My concern this plan [to build a mosque] close to Ground Zero expresses a Muslim insensitivity to all who lost loved ones. I find it hard to believe they are doing this to promote peace and understanding. I think Islam is a religion of violence and that promotes converting people to Islam.”
rdujardi@projo.com
Got Pope, Need no Bart. The Holy Father gone to Turkey to redeem and consecrate the Greeks, so don’t need no more soviet temples. Don’t need no gyro blimpie Bart when got a regular Pope without the diner attitude. My pop kept hitting momma with a skillet on the head. Friends ended up in the hospital after their pop beat them. Pops got drunk and ruined my first car. Killed two cats and a dog, thrown out the window. Neighbor drowned the canaries in ouzo, lit, ate them. Ma overdid whip so she could give less pie. All our stuff came pilfered, with logos. Greeks overcook all meat so no one knows is bad. Another banned tenants flushing toilet paper. Waiters inpune sanitation because “dirty is natural and healthy.” Priests just answered “behave, respect, tradition!” Now priest comes “no intercommunion!” Where was he when we needed him to protect us from our crazy parents? Don’t sell me “educated Greeks” because we know all them Trojan Horse cheated on the exams. Besides it’s just TV repair school. Remember all those jailed old disco Greeks, tax cheats to “protest” Jerome Ford stopping the Trojan Horse in Chyprious? We can’t get good jobs because no one trusts Greeks, because of Trojan Horse. They always faked reading Greek. That’s why we borrowed regular Catholic books instead of read Greek. Sure, we sacrifice to Greek myths three times a year to please yiayia, and she’s nun the wiser when we go to regular Catholic Mass on Sundays when she bummed from bouzaki dances. Ain’t need no more Bart, just the regular Pope. That’s why we all married regular Catholic when we grew up. So they can trust us.