The Last Byzantine

Karloutsos and Bartholomew. Source: Aaron Hickman/UOJ-USA

On September 21, the Ecumenical Patriarch celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in the Hamptons. At the conclusion of the service, His All-Holiness made a surprise announcement: He declared that Holy Dormition would be elevated to the honor of a Cathedral; its pastor, Father Alexander Karloutsos, would serve as dean. Finally, Karloutsos was named Megas Protopresbyteros of the Ecumenical Throne.

Megas Protopresbyteros translates roughly to “Grand Archpriest.” It’s a title that can only be held by one man at a time. Before Karloutsos, it was given to the theologian and ecumenist George Tsetsis, who reposed in 2023. It’s the highest rank that a married priest can achieve in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. And while the seniormost priest is still below the most junior of bishops, few metropolitans would ignore a call from Fr. Alex.

Fr. Alexander Karloutsos listens as Pat. Bartholomew elevates him to Megas Protopresbyteros during a recent Divine Liturgy at his cathedral in the Hamptons. Photo: Aaron Hickman/UOJ-USA

Outside of ecclesiastical circles, Karloutsos is best known as the spiritual advisor to President Joe Biden. In 2022, Biden presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for “providing counsel to several U.S. presidents.” This has led some to develop an image of Karloutsos as a Democratic operative embedded in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The truth is far more complicated—and far more interesting.

The deepest insights into Fr. Alex’s life come from a series of interviews he gave to Matthew Namee, the Orthodox historian. Karloutsos was born in 1945, the son of an Old-Calendarist priest. The elder Karloutsos joined GOARCH after his wife died, hoping to find a better life for his children. Growing up, Fr. Alex’s father was always being moved from parish to parish—from Ohio to New Hampshire to Florida.

Karloutsos was an undergraduate at Hellenic College before entering seminary at Holy Cross. He was the valedictorian of both graduating classes. At his seminary graduation, in lieu of a speech, he wrote a poem:

Much has been written,
much has been said.
Those who have written or spoken
are dying or dead.
Jesus said “Love one another.”
I have nothing significant to add. 

“And then, dramatically, he walked off the stage,” Namee writes. “The mighty Archbishop Iakovos [of America] jumped up in applause, and the room followed with a standing ovation.”

After an apprenticeship at a parish in Chicago, he was recommended for a job at the Archdiocese. There, he became a spiritual son and protege of the same Abp. Iakovos, of blessed memory. Fr. Alex was responsible for youth outreach across all of GOARCH before Iakovos put him in charge of the brand-new “Department of Church and Society.”

This is where Fr. Alex learned to network and fundraise—two talents that would make him indispensable to the entire Ecumenical Patriarchate. Through a combination of intelligence, charisma, and determination, he entered the orbit of VIPs like Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Peter G. Peterson, and Tom Korologos.

In 1983, Fr. Alex met a Greek bishop named Bartholomew. This Bartholomew was a protege of Met. Meliton of Chalcedon. Meliton and Iakovos were bitter rivals, and had been since seminary. Karloutsos and Bartholomew were the servants of warring masters.

Shortly after this first meeting, Meliton had a stroke, and (at Iakovos’s suggestion) was brought to the United States for treatment. Fr. Alex served as Bartholomew’s driver, ferrying him to and from the hospital. “That’s when Bartholomew and I became very, very close,” Karloutsos tells Namee.

In 1985, Karloutsos visited Constantinople for the first time. He found the Phanar in ruins. Time, poverty, and anti-Christian pogroms had taken their toll. The Turkish government would not allow the EP to repair its facilities; even if it did, where would they get the money? “I just started crying like a baby,” Karloutsos recalled. “We were all crying because we had heard about the Holy Mother Church, but we never really were touched by it before.”

Fr. Alex spoke to his friend Jimmy Carter, who squeezed the Turks until they granted the EP its building permit. Karloutsos also helped to find a benefactor to pay for the repairs.

Iakovos realized that his disciple was being drawn away from the Archdiocese of North and South America and into the Ecumenical Patriarchate. “He tried to separate me from Bartholomew,” says Fr. Alex. “But by that time, we had already become close friends.”

Following the death of Pat. Demetrios, Abp. Iakovos charged Fr. Alex with running his election for the Ecumenical Throne. Iakovos wanted the Turkish government to effectively appoint him Patriarch, and Washington could make them do it. However, Karloutsos knew that, if the Holy Synod of Constantinople were allowed a free vote, his friend Bartholomew would win. So, he gave two different messages to two sets of VIPs. First, he urged a number of George H.W. Bush’s advisors to guarantee a free election. Then, once Bush had made his choice, he urged another Bush advisor to lobby for Iakovos.

By then, of course, it was too late for poor Iakovos.

Did he deceive his mentor? Certainly. But did he do what he was asked? That’s how Fr. Alex sees it. “There were two positions,” he tells Namee. “I just arranged the one before the other.” Of course, Bartholomew became the new Ecumenical Patriarch. Fr. Alex then arranged for the President to send a delegation to his enthronement—a first in U.S. history.

Iakovos was furious. He ordered Karloutsos to resign his post or be fired. He was also forbidden to celebrate the Divine Liturgy anywhere in the Archdiocese of America. Before long, he went to work for Patriarch Bartholomew.

In 1996, Karloutsos entered the Clinton family orbit. As he tells Namee:

I was close to [Clinton aide] George Stephanopoulos, so that was a natural bridge to the Clintons. [Greek-American billionaire] John Catsimatidis told me, “You got me to give $100,000 to the Democrats for Dukakis. I’ve decided to put my political wager on Bill Clinton.” I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!” He says, “No, I’ve just got a feeling about this guy.” And so John Catsimatidis was very close to Clinton. I went to the inauguration with John.

By 2001, Karloutsos had returned to the United States. He was assigned to a modest parish in the Hamptons; he also served as Executive Director of Leadership 100, GOARCH’s major endowment fund, and as Archbishop Demetrios’s representative to the White House and Congress.

A mural of the Dormition at the front entrance to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Cathedral, where Fr. Alexander Karloutsos serves as dean. Photo: Aaron Hickman/UOJ-USA

Karloutsos also served as chaplain to the New York City Port Authority.

On September 11, just hours after the attack, he was summoned to Ground Zero. Thirty-seven officers of the Port Authority had died in the relief efforts. Once he and his wife arrived, he felt helpless. “What do you want us to do?” he asked. “I was told, We don’t want you to do too much. Just look holy. Just help us. Pray for us, talk to us, touch us. We just need to feel good, that there’s hope.”

In the coming days, Karloutsos brought Abp. Demetrios to the site. They also visited the ruins of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, the only house of worship destroyed on 9/11. As it happens, Karloutsos’s own father had served as pastor of St. Nicholas years before.

Fr. Alex had found his new crusade. He would build a Greek Orthodox shrine at Ground Zero, on the site where St. Nicholas Church once stood. But there was a problem: the City of New York wanted to seize the land under eminent domain. So, Fr. Alex summoned four allies: John Catsimatidis, Dennis Mehiel, Jim Chanos, and George Tsunis. They lobbied Andrew Cuomo, who was then running for governor, to let the Church keep the land. 

What followed was “unquestionably the most impressive fundraising achievement in Orthodox history,” Namee writes. In 2019, Karloutsos raised $55 million for the Shrine in 55 days. The Shrine was designed by the renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. It was consecrated on July 3, 2022.

In the meantime, Fr. Alex credits himself with helping Joe Biden to become Vice President. He connected his network of Greek donors to the Biden camp in 2008; he believes their money allowed him to remain in the race—which, in turn, gave him the opportunity to form a relationship with Barack Obama. Karloutsos recalls Biden telling him: “I’m the Vice President of the United States, and I owe it all to you, to the Greek community.” And, as Fr. Alex points out to Namee: “Biden would not have become President of the United States if he hadn’t first been Vice President.”

There are some who claim that Karloutsos had a more direct role in helping to get Biden into the White House. As it happens, he's also close to John Poulos, the CEO of Dominion Voting Systems. When Dominion was accused of helping to rig the 2020 election in Biden’s favor, some Republicans accused Father Alex of serving as a go-between for Dominion and the Biden camp. He was subpoenaed and ordered to produce his correspondence with both Poulos. Karloutsos denied any wrongdoing; his lawyers also invoked New York's clergy-penitent privilege law. 

The rest, as they say, is history. And this is why I say it’s foolish to call him operative. He’s much more than that.

Really, Karloutsos could have been anything he wanted: a diplomat, a civil servant. He could have been the first Greek president of the United States. This isn't flattery. It’s simply a fact. And yet, whatever else you wish to say about Father Alex, he chose to be a Greek Orthodox priest. Everything he did, he did for the Church. 

Fr. Alexander Karloutsos is a deeply Medieval figure—a Byzantine logothete in 21st-century America. He’s neither a theocrat nor a secularist; for him, the “wall of separation” between Church and State simply does not exist. He created his own version of symphonia, where the Throne and Altar work together... sometimes without the Throne realizing it. 

Karloutsos is not a romantic figure. Some might say that he’s a little too good at playing politics. A priest ought to “lay aside all earthly cares," they would say. And maybe they would be right.

At the same time, Christian civilization could not exist without men like Fr. Alex. (For some reason, my mind keeps coming back to Pillars of the Earth.) Long after Fr. Alex and his critics are dead, his cathedrals will endure.

The story of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, both in the Old World and the New, can’t be told without mentioning Father Alexander Karloutsos. Not anymore.

Make of that what you will. 

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