Patriarch Bartholomew denies Phanar’s papal claims

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Photo: orthodoxtimes.com

On December 14, 2020, Patriarch Bartholomew stated that the claims of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to governing other Local Churches are not papal claims, but “our responsibility” and “our legacy”, reports the pro-Phanar resource OrthodoxTimes.

“What is being spread through various sites about ‘papal claims’ of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is completely false,” said Patriarch Bartholomew. “We repeat only what the blessed Metropolitan Kallinikos Delikanis of Caesarea said: ‘The guardianship and perception of the Great Church of Jesus Christ that intervenes – sometimes ex officio (due to its status, authority – Ed.) and sometimes after the invocation by those concerned – and provides its effective contribution to the arbitration and resolution of disputes that arise between the Churches… was never delayed or absent’”.

“This is our responsibility. This is our legacy. This is evidenced by facts and documents. We have no right to deny it! The speculations about other intentions are always fake news”, stressed the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in his speech after the Divine Liturgy on Monday, December 14, 2020, which took place on the occasion of the feast (according to the Julian calendar) of Saint Apostle Andrew the First-called at the celebrating Metochi of Saint Andrew in Galata that has been granted for the liturgical needs of the Slavic-speaking Community of Constantinople.

In addition, the Patriarch of Constantinople raised the issue of the Orthodox Diaspora in the context of the decisions of the Great and Holy Council of Crete, which “decided to maintain the “Episcopal Assemblies”. It was stressed that the common will of the Orthodox Churches is to resolve this issue “as soon as possible”. This is required by the Orthodox ecclesiology and the canonical tradition and practice of the Church.”

The Ecumenical Patriarch then stressed: “The only solution to the problems of the Orthodox Diaspora is “adherence to the spirit and within the framework of the 28th Canon of the Fourth Ecumenical Council”. In the care of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the stability of Orthodoxy, no principles foreign to the canonical tradition of the Church, which has been established by the Ecumenical Synods, were ever applied. In this sense, “the main position of the Ecumenical Throne in the Orthodox East” is “not only an obsolete event of the past”, but a “living and active authority”.

As reported earlier, the head of the ROC DECR said that the Phanar reshapes the ecclesiology of the Church according to the papist model.

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