Bethesda, Maryland, April 28, 2023
Photo: goarch.org
Archbishop Elpidophoros, the head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, was the honored guest at the National Intelligence University in Maryland earlier this week, where he delivered an address to the U.S. intelligence community.
The university brings together faculty and students from all 18 of the nation’s intelligence communities.
As the Greek Archdiocese notes, the Archbishop’s talk on “Russia’s Weaponization of Religion in the Ukraine Conflict” was the first ever address from a GOARCH leader to the U.S. intelligence community.
At the same time, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has a long history of cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community, as detailed in documents released by the CIA.
For example, an interoffice memo of the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor to the CIA) from March 26, 1942, quotes Archbishop Athenagoras, who later became Patriarch of Constantinople:
I have three Bishops, three hundred priests and a large and far flung organization. Every one under my order is under yours. You may command them for any service you require. There will be no questions asked and your directions will be executed faithfully. Please tell Mr. Burns for me that this is so.
Abp. Athenagoras later told William J. Donovan, the head of the OSS:
I am ready though to submit myself to any duty and to make every possible sacrifice for our beloved Country, which is fighting for Universal freedom and justice and for the New Day which is to come.
See Orthodox History’s 2019 report on the Athenagoras-intelligence community relationship for more information.
President Dr. J. Scott Cameron of the National Intelligence University invited Abp. Elpidophoros “to share his unique perspectives, insights, and experiences about the religious dynamics of the Ukraine conflict.”
“His Eminence delivered a speech on the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and discussed the implications of Russia’s distortion of the Orthodox faith in the Ukraine conflict,” GOARCH reports.
Recall that Constantinople’s granting of autocephaly to the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” was a joint project with the Ukrainian and U.S. governments, as had been acknowledged by both ecclesiastical and political figures.
“Metropolitan” Makary Maletich, the head of the former “Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church,” which joined Constantinople’s OCU in December 2018, has spoken publicly several times about the role of Western governments in the creation of the OCU.
In December 2018, he said that the provision of autocephaly to the OCU by Constantinople was possible because of the work of foreign diplomats, including U.S. ambassadors and others.
He addressed the issue again the following June, stating: “It’s not only the merit of Poroshenko, but also the Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainians themselves, and the diplomats of the U.S.A., Great Britain, France, and Germany, who were interested in the church.”
Maletich is certain “that if the Ecumenical Patriarch had not seen the support in the leading states of the world, he wouldn’t have done this. Then neither Poroshenko, nor the Rada, nor Philaret, nor I would have done anything.”
In January 2021, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted about the U.S.’s work in getting Orthodox Churches to recognize the schismatics.
That May, Valeriy Chaly, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. from 2015 to 2019, said the U.S. can consider the creation of the OCU its own achievement. He stated on air:
For the American side—by the way, this might not be known in the President’s Office—the key foreign policy topic has been freedom of religion recently. And the issue of an autonomous Church was promoted by Ukraine with the support of our partners.
The United States did—I can say this now—a great deal to make this issue a reality for Ukraine. This is a huge achievement that they consider their own as well. Maybe it’s exaggerated, but there are such sentiments.
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