Archbishop Ioannis of Albania helped people who were persecuted in Albania during the communist regime when he was a layman.
This revelation was first made public in 2009 on Italian state television RAI DUE. It later resurfaced in the Albanian press on the occasion of his election, when an Italian childhood friend who had grown up in Albania sought him out through a television program.
The friend had never forgotten the support of Archbishop Ioannis, now head of the Orthodox Church of Albania, during his ordeal under communism.
Ambrozio Guarnieri was persecuted by the Hoxha regime, and the young Fatmir (Eftychios) Pelousi – now Archbishop Ioannis – did everything he could to help him. In general, he stood up for human rights.
Despite the strict prohibition of Christian religious practice, he himself was baptized an Orthodox Christian in 1979 by Father Kosmas Kyrios, who survived the fall of the atheistic regime and later became titular bishop of Apollonia.
The actions of Archbishop Ioannis during the years of the communist regime, despite his young age, show that he was not indifferent to the events of the time. Instead, he acted according to Christian values, without which no form of intelligent diplomatic dialogue with the world, nor any ethical system, can transform the world in Christ.
His efforts during the communist era in Albania were based on the conviction that nothing is more cowardly than to act courageously towards a defenseless creature of God.
Fr. Ilias Makos
Translated by Ioanna Georgakopoulou
