Theologian: Creating OCU, Phanar head did not want church peace in Ukraine

The head of the Phanar, Patriarch Bartholomew, signs the Tomos for the OCU. Photo: president.gov.ua

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople does not set and never set himself the task of achieving church peace in Ukraine, but wanted to show "who is boss" in world Orthodoxy, emphasized the teacher of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Candidate of Theology Protodeacon Konstantin Markovich in his article on the NEWS24UA website.

The head of the Phanar "demonstratively disregarded the opinion and will of the UOC, its Primate, the episcopate, clergy and people," the theologian noted. Then Patriarch Bartholomew declared that Epiphany Dumenko was the only legitimate Metropolitan of Kiev.

That is, the head of the Phanar considers His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and the bishops of the UOC to be deprived of their legal rights to their sees, regardless of the opinion of the majority of Orthodox Ukrainians, the protodeacon emphasized.

“If the patriarch really wanted to heal the schism, then how can his hostile and insulting attitude towards the UOC contribute to this?” the author of the article wonders.

Analyzing a recent interview with Patriarch Bartholomew, the theologian noted that the true motives of ecclesiastic Istanbul are “the desire to assert their imaginary privileges and ‘sacred rights and duties’" and take revenge for imaginary grievances from the Moscow Patriarchate.

“These are old complexes and phobias. Therefore, any reasoning about the “canonicity / non-canonicity” of the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine from now on is devoid of any sense. The sacred canons here, in fact, no longer have any meaning," believes Fr. Konstantin.

As reported, the head of the Phanar assures that there is no schism in the Orthodox Church.

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