Bulgaria bishop stripped of job after taking part in orgy

SOFIA (AFP) - A senior bishop from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was dismissed Thursday after an online video emerged of him at an orgy with four women.

Bishop Boris, who headed the second-largest monastery in the country, Batchkovo, was relieved of his duties after being found guilty of acts "unworthy of his post", said a statement from the Holy Synod, the Church's supreme clerical body.

It followed allegations that emerged on Thursday in the daily Trud, which reported on a video clip of the bishop with the four women.

The orgy is just the latest scandal to hit the church, which counts 80 per cent of all Bulgarians as followers.

On the opening of government archives in January 2012, it was revealed that 11 members of the Holy Synod had been agents of, or had collaborated with, the former communist regime.

One of those was the hugely controversial bishop Kiril.

Well-known for driving an American luxury car around his seaside diocese of Varna, his body was found on a Black Sea beach last summer, though foul play was later ruled out.

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