Bartholomew goes to Kyiv as an uninvited guest - to squeeze out canonical Orthodox churches
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople is going to come to Ukraine during the Independence Day celebrations in 2021.
This was reported by the Orthodox Times publication, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Patriarch Bartholomew announced his intention to visit Ukraine on November 30, 2020, after a festive service with the participation of Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal.
Pavel Rudyakov, head of the Perspektiva information and analytical center, believes that Patriarch Bartholomew expects to receive from the Ukrainian leadership a number of objects that were promised to him by Petro Poroshenko.
“Bartholomew’s visit will be another reason for aggravating relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ecumenical Patriarchate and strengthening the split within Orthodoxy as a whole. The Greek churches, one after another, recognize the OCU, and, accordingly, come into conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church and the UOC.
Unfortunately, the leadership of Ukraine continues its policy towards Orthodoxy, imposed by external control. Bartholomew himself is interested in coming to Ukraine - at one time Poroshenko, preparing for the signing of the Tomos, concluded an agreement with him on the transfer of a number of objects in the stauropegic regime.
There is such an agreement, although Zelensky has not yet implemented it. I believe that Bartholomew is going to come, because he expects that by his visit, in addition to St. Andrew’s Church, some other objects will be given to him. That is, he also has a material interest,” says Pavel Rudyakov.
Press Secretary of the UOC Vasily Anisimov noted that visits of church hierarchs to foreign canonical territory must be coordinated with the head of the local church, but Patriarch Bartholomew does not do this, since after the creation of the OCU he considers Ukraine his canonical territory.
“Bartholomew coordinated his previous visits with the Kyiv Metropolitan Onuphry and the Moscow Patriarch Kirill. An uninvited guest, as you know, is worse than a Tatar,” said Vasily Anisimov. He also noted that the authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople fell after he went to create the OCU.
“It’s amazing how Bartholomew, a man respected by everyone in Ukraine three or four years ago, who called for ending the fratricidal conflict in the Donbass, today has become the personification of treachery, lies and evil for everyone - for Russophobes and Russophiles, for the left and the right,” concluded Vasily Anisimov.
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