Bulgarian metropolitan: Patriarch Bartholomew destroys Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin. Photo: "podvorie-sofia.bg"

On May 17, 2019, the hierarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin, addressed a letter to all the metropolitans of the Greek Orthodox Church concerning the issue of Ukrainian autocephaly, reports "Fanarion".

In his letter, Metropolitan Daniel asserts that the Ecumenical Patriarch is a man who, through violence, tries to usurp power in World Orthodoxy. The bishop of the Bulgarian Church calls upon Orthodox hierarchs to “raise their voice” against what is happening.

“In this case, the Patriarch of Constantinople is not a father, but a person who, through violence, is trying to arrogate to himself power,” writes the metropolitan. “And these ambitions extend not only to the Holy Metropolis of Kiev but also to the entire Orthodox Church because Patriarch Bartholomew claims to interfere in the internal affairs of each Local Church. If we are real children of our Mother Church, the Orthodox Church, then we must raise our voice against what is happening, because otherwise we will support someone who, using power, tries to usurp rights exclusively belonging to the whole Church.”

Metropolitan Daniel says that today's claims of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to primacy in the Orthodox world have neither canonical nor historical prerequisites:

"Today the historical features are quite different because Istanbul is no longer the capital of a Christian state, and Local Churches do not constitute the territory of a unified state as it was during the long period of the Byzantine and then the Ottoman Empire. Some contemporary Local Churches are much better organized than the modern Patriarchate of Constantinople, and do not need the ‘stabilizing’ factor for the in-church structure and administration."

Metropolitan Daniel is confident that the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople destroy Orthodoxy, and ultimately lead to a new schism, like the one that occurred in 1054:

“It is obvious that these actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople destroy, threaten and damage the Orthodox Church’s unity and catholicity. In our opinion, the Orthodox Church is at a crossroads: show its catholic wisdom and protect unity, holiness, universality and apostolicity, or choose the path of Eastern papism, repeating the sad history of 1054.”

Earlier, the UOJ wrote about the statement by Patriarch Bartholomew that "Constantinople is the Mother Church for the Balkan peoples".

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