WHO Pays the Wages of Sin?

A few days we cited an article from the Orthodox Reform Web site, informing our readers that Greek Orthodox parishioners in Dallas were being asked to pony up more funds to protect their church properties - the ones over which our Metropolitan has "absolute authority and exclusive control." These funds are now needed to protect church assets in the lawsuits being brought by victims of the parish's defrocked priest, Fr. Katinas.

Apparently more of the same is in the offing. The Orthodox Reform Web site, has an article which again parishioners throughout the nation ought to find disheartening. (The article can be read in its entirety by clicking on this link: http://orthodoxreform.org/cases/stanley-adamakis/archdiocese-to-settle-misconduct-cases/. )

The final paragraph in the article by Theodore Kalmoukos, writing for The National Herald, is particularly noteworthy for those who don't have time to read the article in its entirety:

There is also strong disappointment mounting in many Archdiocese parishes, especially among the laity, due to the huge increase of the annual contribution of the parishes to the Archdiocese. The Metropolitans are exercising pressure on priests in their jurisdictions, urging them to convince the laity to increase their contributions to the Archdiocese, and parish councils are also pressuring the faithful to give more and more money, a good part of which is already being used to help pay for clergy sexual abuse cases.

Read it and weep. How can our hierarchy look us in the face and justify this situation?