File No. 16840.
In view of the statement that these persons are performing sacerdotal
acts which are legally invalid, as the celebration of marriages and the
like, the abuse is one which no less affects your Government than our
own. It is proposed to instruct the American minister at Athens to
confer with the authorities of your Government with a view to adopting
regulations and some form of certification which shall effectively
prevent this abuse. Before doing so I would be pleased to have your
views in the matter as to the extent to which the Greek Government can
go in the direction of certifying to the sacerdotal character of this
class of emigrants in the manner suggested by Mr. Constantinides and
indorsed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. In so doing I comply
with the request of Secretary Straus, who asks me to ascertain from you
“exactly what tests may be applied to detect imposters among aliens
applying for admission to this country or alleged to be unlawfully here,
who claim to be engaged as missionaries or priests in the Greek Orthodox
Church.”
[Inclosure.]
Miltiades M.
Constantinides to Hon. Geo.
B. Billings, Commissioner of Immigration at
Boston, Mass.
Boston, November 21,
1908.
Sir: Under the immigration act now in force
priests of all denominations are landed in this country, coming
under the exempt classes. As a Greek working amongst Greeks, it has
come under my observation for the last two or three years that a
good many of the Greek orthodox priests (alleged to be such) have
landed in America without a strict examination of their
qualifications.
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Lately I took the liberty, once by your permission, to investigate a
few of these alleged Greek priests, and have found in every case
that they were not Greek orthodox priests at all and that they have
no authority to perform a marriage ceremony or any other holy
ceremony according to the Greek Orthodox Church. Most of them are
only Greek monks who ran away from their old-country monastery for
one reason or another.
In most cases their papers show that they were inmates of a monastery
in Greece or Turkey. On a pretense of going to visit their relatives
at their home, or in rare cases under a leave of annual absence,
they get out of the monastery and escape to America. Here they go
from community to community, offering their services as fully
qualified and properly ordained priests of the Greek Orthodox Church
amongst their countrymen at half the salary the real priests of that
church demand. By their actions and behavior they only bring trouble
and discord and scandal into any peaceful Greek church and its
congregation.
You will readily understand that, without being exactly priests,
having been only ordained as monks, they are not recognized as
priests, as they have never been ordained as such and have not been
ordered to come here by their higher church authorities. They,
therefore, in each and every case have entered this country in
violation of law, entering in the garb of a priest when they had no
right to do so.
The most important fact connected with the arrival of these alleged
priests and their doubtful practices, however, is that any marriage
ceremony they have performed or may perform in the future between a
Greek (naturalized citizen of the United States or alien) and an
American woman, and this Greek should move in later years back to
Greece or Turkey, as they quite frequently do, as I know from the
many years observation, their American marriage performed by the
bogus priest is null and void, and the Greek who returned to his own
country is at liberty to marry again without being subject to
punishment for bigamy. Furthermore, an American widow and her
children from a bogus marriage performed by an alleged priest as
above described is not entitled, according to Greek laws, to inherit
any property left by her Greek husband in his old country, and there
are many cases on record which bear out my statements; and the
American consul general at Athens, Mr. Horton, will also testify to
these conditions. The Greek courts and the holy orthodox synod in
Greece base their decisions in such cases on the fact that these
couples were not legally married by the properly ordained priest of
the Greek Orthodox Church in the respective American community. For
instance, a priest appointed for the diocese of Boston can not,
according to the laws of the Greek Orthodox Church and according to
the regulations of the Greek Government, perform a lawful ceremony
of marriage in the State of New York, or, as a matter of fact, in
any other State outside of Massachusetts, unless he has a special
permit or special authority to do so.
I respectfully ask you to submit these statements to the Department
of Justice in Washington for a thorough investigation.
I wish to state further that there are rumors current in the Greek
colonies in this country that a few of these alleged priests are not
even monks, but plain outlaws who have come here disguised as
priests so as to enter this country without too severe an
examination. It goes without saying that in every case where it can
be proven that these questionable characters entered in violation of
law they should be deported, as they are certainly undesirable
aliens.
In conclusion, and after much thought, I beg to submit to you the
following suggestion, which I believe will have the approval of the
Greek synod as well as the Greek minister at Washington, and last,
but not least, the support of the consul general of the United
States at Athens, Greece. It is, that every Greek orthodox priest
coming to seek entry in the United States must have a properly made
out passport signed by the Greek orthodox synod, countersigned by
the secretary for ecclesiastical affairs of Greece, and viséed by
the United States consul general at Athens, Greece. Such procedure
would mean no hardship at all to the regularly ordained and properly
qualified priests of the Greek Orthodox Church; in fact, it would be
greatly appreciated by the authorities in Greece who are at a
perfect loss how to handle these alleged priests, who operate in
this country, which is beyond the jurisdiction of the Greek
Government or church authorities.
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As most of these malefactors have been in the country less than three
years, they would come within the limit of our immigration act,
having entered in violation of the law under false pretenses, and
upon warrant issued by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor could be
promptly deported.
Respectfully submitted.
Miltiades M.
Constantinides.
