Konitsa, Greece, November 8, 2021
Romfea
His Eminence Metropolitan Andreas of Konitsa of the Orthodox Church of Greece is not pleased that Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the Orthodox country next month.
The head of the Roman Catholic church will visit Cyprus from December 2 to 4, followed by Greece from December 4 to 6, the Vatican confirmed on Friday.
In response, Met. Andreas sent a letter to the Greek Holy Synod, published on Romfea, emphasizing that he isn’t concerned about how the state, which invited the Pope for the 200th anniversary of the Greek revolution, handles the visit, but how the Orthodox Church responds: “I’m very interested in what the Greek Church will do when the heretic of the Vatican steps on the sanctified soil of our Greek homeland, which is watered with the blood of many martyrs and heroes.”
Will the Synod participate in the events in honor of the Pope? Will it refer to him as a “beloved brother in Christ?” the hierarch wonders. This would certainly cause a scandal in the Church, Met. Andreas affirms.
The Pope last visited in Greece in April 2016, when he visited a refugee camp on the island of Lesbos with Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and Patriarch Bartholomew.
Elsewhere, he notes that the “heretical papacy has never helped the Greek nation or Orthodoxy. On the contrary, it seemed particularly harmful, if we recall the atrocities of the Latins during the fall of Constantinople and the martyrdoms the Orthodox were subjected to during the infamous Ferrara-Florence Council,” among other tragic events.
Thus, Met. Andreas “strongly protests against the coming of the heresiarch Francis Bergolio to Orthodox Greece,” which could only serve to harm the Church.
Met. Andreas was among the four metropolitans who spoke out in favor of Orthodoxy and called in 2019 for the primates of the Church to convene a council to deal with the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s anti-canonical invasion of Ukraine.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, MeWe, and Gab!
