New York, October 21, 2025
Photo: archons.org
The Archons of the Patriarchate of Constantinople awarded former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo the Athenagoras Human Rights Award over the weekend.
As in past years, the award focused on how the awardee has served the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In his message for the event, Patriarch Bartholomew said that Pompeo “is recognized for his consistent advocacy for religious freedom and his steadfast support of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other religious minorities during his distinguished public service,” the Archons report.
Pompeo has spoken about how he personally participated in Constantinople’s creation of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” and in pressuring Orthodox Churches to recognize this organization.
The award was presented at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel by Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and Archons National Commandery Dr. Anthony Limberakis.
Abp. Elpidophoros also praised Pompeo’s support of Constantinople: “[He] has been a leader in the struggle for human rights and guarantees of religious liberty across the globe, and he has a special love and concern for the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.”
Limberakis praised him as an embodiment of “what it means to be a true servant-leader.”
In his own remarks, Pompeo thanked the Archons and praised them for what he described as their work in defending religious freedom for 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. In this vein, he condemned Turkey’s persecution of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
He also praised Patriarch Bartholomew for “granting autocephaly” to the OCU, while condemning the faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a “spy network within Ukraine.”
During his time as Secretary of State, Pompeo met with and expressed support for “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko and other OCU leaders. Dumenko is himself a former recipient of the Archons’ human rights award, although his organization openly and violently persecutes the Orthodox Christians of Ukraine.
Pompeo has publicly acknowledged that with his help, the U.S. pressured for international recognition of the schismatic OCU, and OCU “bishops” themselves have openly stated that Pat. Bartholomew was able to create the OCU in 2018 only because he had U.S. support.
A year ago, Pompeo was pranked by famous Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus. Thinking he was speaking with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, the former Secretary of State said about the creation of the OCU:
I know, I was in the middle of it. I’m so proud of what happened. By the way, I think it has made a difference in the war. So I give His All-Holiness Bartholomew and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church [meaning the OCU—Ed.] leadership major honor for what they did.
And in his view, the idea that Zelensky and the OCU leadership are persecuting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is “nutso.”
Other past recipients of the Athenagoras Human Rights Award include Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria, former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, and President Joe Biden (Vice President at the time).
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