The Greek Press (Toronto Fortnightly Newspaper) - April 12, 2001
The Lonely Path of Integrity Presented in Toronto
Great public interest in the presentation
of Justine Frangouli's The Lonely Path of Integrity
By Costas Kranias
The presentation of The Lonely Path of Integrity concluded
on this Palm Sunday evening in Toronto with a large bouquet of spring flowers,
offered with love and pride by the Association of Lefkadians, to their compatriot,
author and journalist Justine Frangouli. The whole evening was exceptionally
dedicated to our colleague from Montreal both by the Federation of Hellenic
Media Abroad (OMME) and the local Greek Community.
The event was attended by representatives of Greece and Cyprus, as well as
by officials from our local Greek community: the Consul General of Greece
in Toronto, Alexis Alexandris; the Consul of Cyprus, Efstathios Orphanidis;
the Press Attaché of the Cyprus Consulate, Costis Hadjicostis; the
Commercial Attaché of Greece, Yannis Paschalis; the President of the
Greek Community, Costas Menegakis; the President of the Toronto based Federation
of Greek Canadians, Dinos Sophocleous; and the President of the Lefkadian
Association, Mr Theiakos. Present at the event were also many other public
figures and a large number of local Greeks who had come to meet with the author.
Justine Frangouli gladly signed and dedicated her books.
The literary gathering was conducted by Vassilis Diamantopoulos. He introduced
with graciousness and style all the evening’s speakers who later referred
not only to The Lonely Path of Integrity but also to the author's impressive
career.
The curtain rose on Costas Kranias, OMME’s President, who spoke with
enthusiasm about Justine Frangouli and her early work as a writer. He stressed
that the purpose of the event was to honor not only his colleague from Montreal
but also the broader Greek community in Canada.
He was followed by Nikos Terzis, head of OMME’s cultural department and
organizer of the evening’s event. Terzis spoke at length about The Lonely
Path of Integrity calling attention to extracts that brought out in high relief
the nature of Archbishop Spyridon’s options, options that finally led
to his resignation and to his self-imposed withdrawal from active church ministry.
The President of the Greek Community, Costas Menegakis, then referred to the
author’s remarkable career. He described Justine Frangouli as an untiring
journalist rigorously active both in Greece and in Canada, where she has worked
for years and, to this day, still works for the Athens News Agency, the Sunday
Eleftherotypia and Ethnos, as well as for the Montreal Greek newspaper Ellinikos
Tachydromos. After the President had given his clear-cut portrait of the journalist
and author, he drew attention to her ability to inspire confidence in the
former Primate to the point where he entrusted her with his personal archives
for the historical biography in question.
The next speaker was the author herself. She described her long and laborious
journey through the archival material given to her by Archbishop Spyridon,
a journey that carried her through to the end of a book. Justine Frangouli-Argyri
mentioned that in The Lonely Path of Integrity she has given her own personal
testimony to the events of Archbishop Spyridon’s stormy three-year tenure
in America (1996-99). She pointed out that the game played against Spyridon
clearly took on the color of money and power. It involved the Patriarchate,
the Greek State, the clergy in America, and prominent Greek-Americans, threatening
the unity of Orthodoxy and Hellenism in America.
This literary sit-in on the first evening of spring in Toronto concluded,
after a review of the book by Antonis Vazintaris, with the reading of a letter
from Archbishop Spyridon. In this letter read by Vassilis Diamantopoulos,
Archbishop Spyridon congratulated OMME on its initiative to project and promote
The Lonely Path of Integrity. He also stressed that “it was a source
of special pleasure to learn that the proceeds from book sales will serve
as OMME’s humble contribution to the Greek Community’s new Cultural
Center in Metropolitan Toronto. Currently under way, the Center has the ambition
to become the focal point for Hellenism in that great Canadian city. The Center’s
future role in preserving Hellenic culture is considered as certain and beyond
question.”
The presentation of The Lonely Path of Integrity by Justine Frangouli-Argyri
was one of those events that remain indelible in people’s memory for
their immediacy, warmth and, above all, as something new to add to our outdated
everyday routine.
