Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos expressed his regret for the incident of tension that was created with the journalist Aristides Viketos, in an announcement that was issued.
In his announcement, the Metropolitan pointed out that the behavior of the journalist – which he characterized as provocative and offensive – caused him irritation and behaved inappropriately, something that was out of character for him as he stated.
The Metropolitan of Kykkos admitted that he had to restrain his irritation “and not follow the indecent behavior”.
“I express my deepest regret for the incident and I apologize both to the TV audience and the journalist himself,” he noted.
It is reminded that yesterday an intense verbal confrontation took place between Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos and a journalist, shortly after the meeting of the Holy Synod during which they discussed the Ukrainian autocephaly issue and the commemoration of Metropolitan Epiphaniy of Kyiv as Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
At one point, journalist Aristides Viketos told him that, in short, he was taking the same stance as the Moscow Patriarchate, provoking the reaction of the Metropolitan of Kykkos, who asked him to let him speak.
As the Metropolitan was leaving, the journalist told him that he was distorting things and asked him whether he aspired to become like “Mark of Ephesus”. “Shut up!,” the Metropolitan of Kykkos said, provoking a strong reaction from the journalist who asked him to speak more nicely. Metropolitan Nikiforos then deemed the journalist as “vulgar” and “dishonourable” and asked him not to intervene.
It is noteworthy that shortly after the Metropolitan of Kykkos speaking to AlphaNews.live apologised and said that there was no excuse for his behaviour.
“I apologise to the whole world. This was not me. This was not how I behave in the Church. I am not making excuses because no matter what happened I should not have behaved like that. But in the heat of the debate, I lost my temper. I apologise to everyone,” he said.