Patriarch Bartholomew lives in fictional world—Ukrainian hierarch

Kiev, November 8, 2021

Photo: spzh.news Photo: spzh.news     

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople lives in a fantasy world, where he actually solved the Ukrainian crisis by giving the “tomos of autocephaly” to the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”

“In fact, the head of Phanar not only failed to solve even a minimal fraction of problems, but also caused new ones. Moreover, he caused them for almost all Local Churches, including the Patriarchate of Constantinople,” His Grace Bishop Viktor of Baryshevka of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church comments in a new interview with the Greek outlet news-poitics.com.

Pat. Bartholomew simply chooses not to see that there are serious problems in Ukraine, including the person and actions of “Patriarch” Philaret Denisenko, as Bp. Viktor points out, who soon after the creation of the OCU left to relaunch his “Kiev Patriarchate.” While Constantinople’s OCU continues to consider him their “Honorary Patriarch,” they refuse to recognize the many hierarchical consecrations he has performed.

“And the most interesting thing is that the representatives of the OCU either don’t understand or pretend that they don’t understand that in the same way a few decades ago no Church recognized Philaret’s ‘ordinations,’ which were performed in relation to those who are now ‘Bishops’ of the OCU.”

As OrthoChristian has reported and commented several times, the OCU now has the same problem with Philaret that the canonical Ukrainian Church had with him 30 years ago, but it has backed itself into a corner and is unable to deal with the problem effectively, proclaiming that it won’t excommunicate him because that would be too much like the Moscow Patriarchate.

Because Constantinople and the OCU insist that Philaret’s departure into schism from the Ukrainian Church was canonically valid, the OCU cannot consider him a schismatic now for doing the same thing. Most recently, Philaret’s KP received an entire diocese of a Greek Old Calendarist group into its ranks.

Thus, a bishop recognized as fully canonical by Constantinople and the OCU has set up a parallel jurisdiction in Greece.

Moreover, why has Constantinople never addressed this issue at all, Bishop Viktor wonders. The “Phanar has created a problem for itself and doesn’t even try to resolve it.”

And how can Pat. Bartholomew not see the violence that his group commits against the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine, Bp. Viktor continues. Either he doesn’t want to see the truth, or he knows only what is shown, “that is, he lives with a distorted perception of reality,” the hierarch continues.

This is underlined by the fact that Pat. Bartholomew intentionally avoided meeting with or talking to any of the Ukrainian faithful during his recent visit to the country, His Grace notes.

“So if the Patriarch were a person who cares about the well-being of the Church, he would definitely have met with the Orthodox Christians of our country… But he didn’t want to…” Bp. Viktor laments.

Unfortunately, it seems dialogue with Pat. Bartholomew is impossible at this point, the Ukrainian hierarch notes, as clearly evidenced by the Patriarch’s recent statement that he simply doesn’t care that his actions have led to a breakdown in relations with the Russian Church [Pat. Bartholomew’s statement was, in fact, much stronger and more vulgar than “I couldn’t care less”—OC].

Such language can only be used by people who have lost respect and authority and who know they have lost, Bp. Viktor explains. “But he will never acknowledge it. We want a dialogue with him, but he wants no dialogue with us, unfortunately.”

Pat. Bartholomew just thinks every Ukrainian should be grateful to him that the Patriarchate Christianized Rus’ 1,000 years ago, and thus the Ukrainian bishops “should be silent despite the Phanar’s iniquity,” and all this points to the fact that the Patriarch is stubborn and unwilling to admit his mistake, Bp. Viktor emphasized.

It would be good if the Patriarch were as concerned about people as he is the environment, and as interested in dialogue with his fellow Orthodox Christians as he is with the Catholics, His Grace states in conclusion.

“Otherwise he could go down in history not as the ‘Green Patriarch’ but as the man who tore the robe of Christ.”

***

For a thorough examination of the Ukrainian crisis from a canonical point of view, see The Ecclesial Crisis in Ukraine and its Solution According to the Sacred Canons by His Eminence Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kykkos of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus.

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11/8/2021

See also
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Dropping all pretexts, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople admitted on Friday that he doesn’t care at all that there is a schism between the Patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople, that His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia doesn’t commemorate him in the Divine services.
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During a meeting with a Ukrainian Church delegation at Archangel Michael Cathedral in Belgrade, the recently-reposed Serbian primate “openly stated in front of everyone that he had met with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and directly told him to his face: ‘Through your non-canonical and harmful actions, you are personally guilty of what is happening in Ukraine today,’” His Grace Bishop Viktor of Baryshevka of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church recalls.
Comments
Simon Wiesenthal 2.011/11/2021 1:27 pm
It's not at all the same thing. His Holiness Archbishop Stephen of Ohrid and Macedonia is also not commemorated in the diptychs by those under the Moscow Patriarchate, despite being the head of the only autocephalous church south of Romania that is fully in continuation with the Holy Mother Church. The same goes for His Holiness Catholicos Vissarion of Abkhazia. Meanwhile, the Greek, Georgian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian and Cypriot schismatics are all commemorated in the diptychs despite their heresy. Arhondonis is right not to care (or not to give a sh-t) whether Moscow commemorates him in the diptychs, because it means nothing, but he is wrong not to care about the schism he has caused.
Jesse Dominick11/9/2021 9:41 pm
What he said was stronger and more vulgar because "I couldn't care less" is a very soft translation. What he actually said is more like, "I don't give a s---." And the fact that the Russian Church dropped him from the diptychs and the fact of the schism are the same thing. Why isn't he commemorated? Because there's no Eucharistic communion, aka there's a schism. They're all the same thing.
Simon Wiesenthal 2.011/9/2021 5:15 pm
While I agree with His Grace Bishop Viktor's assessment of Dimitrios Arhondonis, I think it is dishonest to say the latter's 'statement was, in fact, much stronger and more vulgar than “I couldn’t care less”'. His statement was that he could not care less whether those under the Moscow Patriarchate commemorated him in the diptychs, which is, in fact, much weaker and less vulgar than stating he does not care about the schism he has facilitated.
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