The Metropolitan Archbishop of Kalavrita and Aegialias Anmvrosios penned an open letter to prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday, condemning him for comparing the Greek Revolution of 1821 with the Cuban civil war of 1959, which he called a national crime and disgrace, and criticizing the extravagance of the premier’s “unnecessary” trip to Cuba in his post script.

In one excerpt, he said: “As reported in the media, you uttered the following blasphemous words: ‘Freedom or Death was the slogan of the Greek Revolution in 1821. Patria o muerte [Homeland or death], the slogan of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.’  In other words, you equated the Greek Revolution of 1821 of almost 400 years of slavery endured by our ancestors at the hands of our Turkish conquerors with the Cuban revolution, which was an internal, communistic revolution of a few Cuban communists and their leader Fidel Castro against Batista, the president of the country, and their Cuban compatriots.”

The Metropolitan Archbishop also characterized the eulogy of Mr. Tsipras in Cuba as criminally wrong, while as for ‘Comandante Fidel Castro,’ he pointed out, among other things, he “became known for his immorality, given that he erotically ‘embraced’ several hundred women.”

However, Amvrosios also chastized himself, saying that during Alexis Tsipras’s swearing-in ceremony, he had greeted him with the words: “Hello, fine young prime minister.”