DECR MP chairman: Phanar head imagines himself arbiter of fate of Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev). Photo: a screenshot of the youtube channel "Russia 24"The decision of Patriarch Bartholomew to unite Catholicism and Orthodoxy will mean nothing for the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion said.

The chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, on the air of the programme “Church and World” on the Russia 24 TV channel said that the Russian Orthodox Church would not accept the union of the Orthodox and Catholics at the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Metropolitan Hilarion's words were a reaction to the words of Metropolitan Polycarp (Stavropoulos) of Italy, who said in an interview with “Vatican News” that there should be a union with Rome in the very near future.

“The Patriarch of Constantinople has recently imagined himself to be the arbiter of the fate of Orthodoxy, he believes that he can make decisions on his own. It will not be surprising that the Patriarch of Constantinople, without the consent of other Local Orthodox Churches, without solving the many issues on the agenda of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, would simply announce that reunification has taken place, would sign some kind of paper. For us, for the Russian Orthodox Church, this paper will mean nothing,” said Metropolitan Hilarion.

Metropolitan Hilarion added that since 2000 he has personally participated in the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, which was co-chaired by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The head of the DECR described the policy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople as "borrowing the Catholic model of hierarchy and government".

As previously reported, the head of the DECR MP said that the head of the Phanar was either incompetent or deliberately lying.

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