New Rochelle, New York, November 20, 2025
Photo: stsimeonmiami.org
“American Serbs were astonished” by the recent propaganda article from The Hill containing allegations that are “patently wrong,” the Eastern American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church said in a statement on Tuesday.
“White House to meet clergy with ties to pro-war Russian Orthodox Church,” an article by Laura Kelly published on Monday, features a “blatantly misleading title” and originally included a blatantly false allegation against His Grace Bishop Irinej of Eastern America. The piece concerned a group that met with Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) the next day to discuss the fact of the persecution of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
It refers to a letter by Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the group as potential Russian intelligence assets. The Congressman from the south was apparently unaware that the delegation was not speaking on behalf of the Russian Church, but rather was a pan-Orthodox group with representation from the OCA, ROCOR, the Antiochian Archdiocese, the Serbian Church, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.
The initial version of the article claimed that Bp. Irinej (who was represented in the meeting with Luna by Protopresbyter Vasilije Vranic) traveled with His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia to Moscow in April to meet with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and President Putin. The claim was accompanied by a photo that clearly showed His Grace Bishop Irinej of Bačka at the April meeting. The author failed to realize that there is more than one Serbian Bishop Irinej, and on the basis of this confusion, called the hierarch of Eastern America into question.
“This allegation is patently wrong. His Grace Bishop Irinej, Bishop of Eastern America, has never met with Vladimir Putin. Neither did he accompany His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije to Moscow in April 2025. The implication is egregious and tantamount to defamation,” the diocese said in a statement to the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
Further:
The American public deserves news with a much higher standard of accuracy and truth than what The Hill has demonstrated in the article by Kelly.
The Eastern American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church trusts that The Hill will take appropriate action against those responsible for the hastily concocted smear campaign against its Bishop, and publish a second, more accurate correction.
The article now begins with a correction: “The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porfirije, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill in Moscow in April. An earlier version of this story included incorrect information.”
At the same time, Kelly still attempts to discredit Bp. Irinej on the basis that his primate was at the Moscow meeting.
In his own statement to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, Fr. Vasilije Vranic, who serves as dean of the Serbian Church’s Washington Deanery, said America should be very concerned when a Congressman serving on the Foreign Relations Committee displays “such shocking ignorance about egregious violations of human rights and religious freedom in Ukraine,” as well as when a “supposedly reputable news outlet, which The Hill purports to be, is publishing flagrant falsehoods.”
Rep. Wilson and Laura Kelly faced a flood of backlash on social media from Orthodox Christians of all jurisdictions and fellow politicians.
“Really ugly smear of Orthodox Christians as agents of a foreign power. This is beneath the office,” Rep. Thomas Beach said to his fellow South Carolina Congressman Wilson. He also called on Wilson’s son, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, to “forthrightly speak in defense of the rights of Orthodox Christians to practice their faith without government persecution or harassment.”
Stefano Ludaros Forte, a Greek Orthodox Christian who heads the Young Republicans Club of New York, also responded to Wilson:
The Ukrainian gov is conscripting monks to the frontlines and you’re giving them cover?
Maybe instead of attacking a whole faith, meet with the priests and monks fighting to save their church. My DMs are open if you want to meet them.
Your Christian constituents are watching.
In addition to ROCOR and the Serbian Church, Kelly also attempted to smear the OCA, saying: “Among the clergy lobbying Capitol Hill this week include representatives from at least three churches that hold ties with the Russian Orthodox Church,” apparently unaware that all Orthodox Churches hold ties with one another.
“The Orthodox Church in America, part of the delegation, maintains representation in Moscow,” Kelly writes, though she fails to mention that the Antiochian, Jerusalem, Georgian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Czech-Slovak Churches also have representation churches in Moscow. The Alexandrian Church was also represented until it entered into communion with the Ukrainian schismatics.
The article also states: “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is an offshoot of the Russian Orthodox Church, headquartered in Moscow and under the leadership of Patriarch Kirill,” thus repeating the Ukrainian state’s false justification for persecuting the Church.
Further, Kelly writes that “The move [to ban the UOC] was criticized by the United Nations, the pope, and human rights organizations as an assault on religious freedom,” but failed to accuse them of being under Kremlin sway.
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