This is the kind of New York Times headline that tends to inspire emails that show up in my computer inbox: “Ex-Director of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Charged.”

In this case, we are dealing with an Associated Press report that has run all over the place — covering the latest installment in a long-simmering scandal that has created a major embarrassment for Eastern Orthodox Christians here in North America.

On one level, this is a Greek Orthodox story. However, I think that reporters need to understand that many Orthodox believers — in America and around the world — are intensely interested in what happens in this case.

Why is that? You see this scandal is linked to a highly symbolic 9/11 memorial project at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. Check out the images and emotional language used in the video at the top of this post, back when work finally started moving on the long-delayed project to rebuild St. Nicholas Orthodox Church.

Let’s start with the top of the AP report:

NEW YORK — The former head administrator of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America was arrested Monday on charges he embezzled over half a million dollars from the organization even as the church ran out of money trying to build a shrine to replace a church crushed in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Jerry Dimitriou, 55, of Greenlawn, New York, was freed on $150,000 bail after he was charged with two counts of wire fraud, accused of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally while serving as the administrator from 2000 until late 2017.
Dimitriou oversaw construction of a new church and Sept. 11 shrine at the World Trade Center until the project ran out of money in 2017. The St. Nicholas National Shrine, designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava and estimated to cost $50 million, was supposed to replace a tiny church that was crushed by the trade center’s south tower.

That $50 million price tag?

If you dig around you will find all kinds of other numbers for that, starting at $80 million and heading way, way higher. The funds for the project came from donors all over the place, with gifts both large and small.

So what went wrong? Here is some language in the new AP story. Read carefully:

A criminal complaint in Manhattan federal court said Dimitriou knew that the archdiocese, which oversaw 540 parishes and about 1.5 million Greek Orthodox faithful across the U.S., was facing financial difficulties as he took money he was not authorized to receive.
It said he directed subordinates to give him extra salary payouts totaling over $488,000 over one five-year stretch. They said he raked in tens of thousands of dollars more by charging hundreds of unauthorized personal expenses to the organization’s credit card, including gym membership fees and online music. According to the complaint, Dimitriou charged $61,000 to the credit card for his family’s airline travel.

This is a classic case in which journalists will have to — all together now — “follow the money.”

The door into the wider story? That would be the words “Dimitriou knew that the archdiocese … was facing financial difficulties.”

Readers are not given any additional information in this new AP report, since the emphasis is on the alleged crimes of Dimitriou. At one point a prosecutor is quoted as saying that this was “a straightforward scam and a highly profitable one.”

So are the sins of Dimitriou the whole story here? Let’s back up to a New York Post story from a few months ago with this headline: “Cuomo makes construction push for stalled Ground Zero church.” Here is a key passage in that:

The rebuilding of the more elaborate replacement church, known as the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine, stalled in December 2017 when the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese ran out of money for the $80 million project.
Some of the money meant for the grand church went to shore up the Archdiocese’s finances. The US Attorney has been probing the project.

So what was wrong with the finances at the archdiocese? That’s the kind of question that often leads to more questions — about the current health of this flock on several levels, including church membership, attendance figures, struggles to keep some struggling parishes alive, etc.

So let’s back up another year, to an earlier New York Post report with this headline: “Feds probe $80M construction scandal at church wrecked on 9/11.” Here’s some important language at the very top of that report:

The resurrection of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed on 9/11, has turned into an $80 million boondoggle — and now the feds want to know where the money went.
The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan is probing the project’s finances and those of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, according to The National Herald, a newspaper covering the Greek community.
The state Attorney General’s Office is also investigating, reported the paper, which said as much as $15 million has gone missing from the construction accounts for the half-built church. …

OK, do the math. Is Dimitriou to blame for $500,000 that’s missing or $15 million? Who else needed money that was raised for the St. Nicholas to pay other bills? Why all the red ink?

Stay tuned. What I am saying is that this could turn out to be a religion story as well as a crime story.