Head of ROC DECR: Phanar saying it "tolerates" the UOC Primate is absurd

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev). Photo: pravmir.ru

The remark of the head of Phanar that he "tolerates" the presence in Ukraine of the UOC and its Primate, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine is an "absolutely absurd and crazy situation," Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, Head of the Moscow Patriarchate's External Church Relations Department, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

The hierarch noted that since the Council of Crete, "we have been made to believe that the Patriarch of Constantinople is a supreme arbiter in all disputes and conflicts in the Local Churches regardless of the positions of these Churches themselves."

"Patriarch Bartholomew claims that he tolerates the presence of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and the Church he heads in Ukraine only ‘by condescension’," said Metropolitan Hilarion. “This is an absolutely absurd and crazy situation. Who is he to decide?”

He stressed that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has a self-governing status, more than 100 bishops, 12.5 thousand parishes, over 250 monasteries, including the largest ones – 3 Lavras.

"And he, if you can believe it, tolerates this Church by condescension!" the head of the MP DECR added.

It will be recalled that according to Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Phanar reshapes the ecclesiology of the Church after the papist model.

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