BISHOP DEMETRIOS: From altar boy to bishop

Rev. Demetri Kantzavelos returns to his childhood parish to be elevated in the hierarchy of the Greek Orthodox church By Manya A. Brachear | Tribune staff reporter December 8, 2006 Wearing a golden miter and vestments custom-made for him in Greece, Rev. Demetri Kantzavelos will kneel before the altar of Assumption Greek Orthodox Church Saturday just as he did more than three decades ago. An altar boy then, Kantzavelos is being elevated to auxiliary bishop, considered a successor of the apostles in Orthodox tradition. At 44, he will be the youngest bishop currently in the 4 million-member Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. While Kantzavelos traces his clerical calling to adolescence, his mother, Merope, had an inkling when he was 6 that the oldest of her four children would become a priest. With the family sometimes still asleep, young Demetri would pedal his bike to Assumption, 601 S. Central Ave., on Sunday mornings to serve as a junior altar boy. Educated in Lutheran-Missouri Synod schools, Kantzavelos learned early that not all Christians were the same, discussing with classmates why his Easter fell on a different Sunday than theirs or why the Orthodox venerate icons. By high school, where he took an interest in theater, he had received an early promotion to senior altar boy. "I just learned from the theater how to be more in touch with feelings and emotions," he said. "I had a calling to love other people. It really stirred my heart. The only perfect love was Christ's love. That's how I came to that conclusion." As a high school senior, he began working for Metropolitan Iakovos, leader of 250,000 Greek Orthodox faithful in 59 parishes across six states. He also applied to Hellenic College and Holy Cross School of Theology in Brookline, Mass., and announced his intentions to become a priest. In Greek Orthodox tradition, married men can become priests. But it is from the unmarried priests that bishops are chosen. Those unmarried priests often take new names at ordination. When Kantzavelos announced he would stay celibate, a choice that meant no children, his family could not help but have mixed emotions. Merope Kantzavelos pleaded with Iakovos to let her son keep his name. As the oldest son, he had been named for his grandfather. The metropolitan gave his consent. Kantzavelos' father, Christ, died last year. In 1989 Kantzavelos was ordained a deacon. Three years later, he was ordained to the priesthood. That year, a young man with AIDS dialed Chicago's Greek Orthodox headquarters searching for God. Moved by the man's need for ministry, Kantzavelos launched the Bishop's Task Force on AIDS, the first formal Orthodox Christian AIDS ministry to comfort the afflicted and educate clergy. "When people found out they weren't condemning, they were helping," he said. "It's a process of education." In the years to come, Kantzavelos would become an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, an interfaith bridge builder, and chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, making him second in command. He has built significant bridges with the Roman Catholic community, from which the Orthodox Church broke away in the 9th Century over the primacy of Rome versus Constantinople. Instead of focusing on differences, the local churches have united around values they share, such as opposition to capital punishment and a reverence for the spiritual centers of their faith. In 1998 Kantzavelos took a group of religious leaders to Turkey and Rome to engage in what was called the "Dialogue of Love." "It was his idea that came to fruit," said Rev. Thomas Baima, a Catholic priest and provost of Mundelein Seminary. "By doing this spiritual journey together and sharing with the other church, you're building a deeper awareness at the local level of the communion that already exists between Orthodox and Catholics." That trip prompted Chicago's Roman Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, and other leaders to join Kantzavelos in his fight to save Andrew Kokoraleis, a man convicted of murder who re-embraced his Orthodox faith in prison. Kokoraleis was the last man executed in Illinois before former Gov. George Ryan issued a moratorium on the death penalty. Baima and Kantzavelos both think it is especially important to include an Orthodox voice at the ecumenical table as the faithful in America learn to accommodate the rise of Islam. "The Orthodox world lived under Islam for 400 years," Kantzavelos said. "I think Orthodoxy has a lot to teach the West." In 2003 Kantzavelos co-founded a local initiative to improve relations between the Turkish and Greek communities. But not all of Chicago's Greek Orthodox faithful support Kantzavelos. His no-nonsense style has rubbed some parish leaders the wrong way. Some accuse him of stalling church projects and failing to discipline clergy for misconduct. They also do not approve of his work in the ecumenical community, saying he should be paying more attention to his own church. "I think we're here to witness the truth of Orthodoxy," Kantzavelos said. "We don't want to compromise the faith. I never want to do that. But I want to be true to the faith and I want to be true to the tradition, and I think I can do that and be extremely relevant to this world." Rev. Angelo Artemas, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Glenview, described Kantzavelos as matter-of-fact. "I consider that a virtue," said Artemas. "Compassion is often letting people know where they stand and giving them a straight answer--tough love so to speak." Kantzavelos has presided over the marriage of his brother and baptized nieces and nephews. "It's touching. I always shed a tear," said his mother, whose love for her oldest has grown into a deep respect. "I really think of him as a priest instead of as my son." Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America