Do you know those whom we, the clever ones, mockingly call “Old Calendarists”? (Updated)

Words of Protopresbyter George Metallinos (+2019), Professor Emeritus of the School of Theology at the University of Athens

Do you know that those whom we, the clever ones, mockingly call Old Calendarists—today we are beginning to understand how greatly we wronged them? Because we did not hold the Thermopylae as they did, they who are so few...

We retreated and continue to retreat constantly. The devil is robbing us little by little and skillfully. So many steps have been taken (i.e., the lifting of anathemas, recognition of mysteries, acceptance of episcopacy and primacy of honor), with the clear goal of union between the Orthodox, Papists, etc.

And behold, today, before the common chalice and the papal primacy of authority, the people of God sleep.

And the saddest thing is that those who are hostile toward the honorable and sincere Old Calendarists think that in doing so they are cleansing their stained and betrayed faith. But time will admonish them, and then, together with all the conservative clergy of the new calendar, they will realize that the struggle for the Orthodox Faith which they will begin so late is none other than the struggle that our Old Calendarist grandfathers began so many years ago…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Ak8KU5Zpc

Greek source: https://pneumatoskoinwnia.blogspot.com/2024/03/blog-post_4.html

Addendum: The corrected published quote (with a scan of the page), as furnished by the blog

https://entoytwnika1.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-post_11.html:

The “tragic” conservative New Calendarists        

[Interviewer:] These were heard by the humble Mytileneans during their visit to the Phanar (photo). Their parish priest, the loud-voiced Father Thanasis, is probably one of those tragic figures of the State Church who, because they have something within them, are trying to build where their directed superiors have removed the ruins. He is among the few fighters who “beat the air” and fight with zeal, but—alas!—in vain, in order to defend a cause which has already decided to retreat and surrender to the enemy.

[Fr. George:] The saddest thing is that they are hostile toward the honorable and sincere Old Calendarists who live in Mytilene, thinking that in this way they cleanse their stained and betrayed faith. Time, however, will admonish them. The intentions will be revealed. The plans and programs will become deeds, and then, together with all the conservative clergy of the New Calendar, they will understand that the struggle they are beginning today is among the most unreliable. For it is the struggle that their Old Calendarist grandfathers have already begun here so many years ago. When, therefore, the dust of the dialogues and great agreements settles, we will not only see betrayed priests, but, what is worse, a pyramid, at the top of which will stand only the gold-crowned papal latrine of the pope. Read below some fragments that fell from the table of the suspicious ecumenistic schemes. We have not often been witnesses of such belated candor. Many endless hidden desires slipped through.