Church historian: Phanar head's visit to Kyiv was a complete fiasco

Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: parikiaki.com

The trip to Ukraine became a complete fiasco for Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, who claimed the primacy in the Orthodox world. Vladislav Petrushko, professor of the St. Tikhon Orthodox University for the Humanities, Doctor of Church History, said this in an interview with Interfax-Religion.

Firstly, he explained that the head of Phanar put himself in an extremely ridiculous position by the fact that “he ran away like a hare from thousands of believers of the UOC and not only did not want to meet those whom he constantly calls 'spiritual children of the Constantinople Mother Church', but behaved very inappropriately when, for example, he came to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the 'back' entrance only to avoid meeting with the believers outraged by his actions." This behavior, the professor believes, testifies that Patriarch Bartholomew is well aware of the crimes committed by the adherents of his schismatic structure. Moreover, "he has absolutely nothing to object to the thousands of believers protesting against his arrival, otherwise he would have to admit not only the wrongness, but also the criminality of the decision he made."

Secondly, says Petrushko, the patriarch did not succeed "in trying to support the OCU and thereby strengthen his own position in the Orthodox world as a newly appeared center of power."

The main thing, he added, is that none of the Primates of the Local Churches arrived in Kyiv together with the Patriarch of Constantinople, even from among those who recognized the OCU – for example, Alexandrian Patriarch Theodore, whom Epiphany had specially invited to Ukraine the day before.

The head of Phanar could have a special personal interest in this trip – to secure the transfer of at least some of the stavropegia (metochions) promised by Petro Poroshenko earlier as a fee for the tomos on autocephaly for the OCU, but "apparently, something went wrong with this,” the professor noted.

“The result, unfortunately, is deplorable. With regret, we have to state that Patriarch Bartholomew, despite his advanced years when believers usually sum up the results of their life path, plunged headlong into a political adventure that has already earned him the notorious ‘Herostratos’ fame’,” Vladislav Petrushko noted.

The UOJ also wrote that the service led by the head of Phanar in his Stavropegia took place practically without parishioners.

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