Is Patriarch Bartholomew capabable of controlling the OCU?

Patriarch Bartholomew hands over the Tomos to Epifaniy Dumenko. Photo: OCU

On October 22, the head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate marked the 33rd anniversary of his patriarchate. Epifaniy Dumenko sent him an elaborate congratulatory message “on behalf of himself and the entirety” of the OCU, where he referred to Bartholomew as an “outstanding” figure and expressed thanks to him “from the entire Ukrainian people.”

But this is all formal; the behind-the-scenes reality is somewhat different.

Belarusian journalist Natallia Vasilevich claimed that in June 2023, she was personally a witness to a scolding that Bartholomew gave to Zoria over the OCU’s seizures of UOC churches and violence against its faithful.

It’s unlikely that the head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was truly concerned for the Orthodox Ukrainians. Instead, the issue seems to be something else.

Vasilevich emphasized that the OCU’s actions have significantly tarnished Patriarch Bartholomew’s reputation. If Dumenko and his church actually respected Bartholomew as they claimed in their congratulatory messages, they would have completely ceased their banditry following that conversation.

But therein lies the issue: the seizures only became more commonplace and violent.

In other words, Dumenko disregarded the words and reputation of his benefactor, just as he once did with Filaret.

On the other hand, the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s decision to legitimize the UOC-KP and UAOC on October 10, 2018, included a final point which stated:

“We call on all parties involved to refrain from seizing churches, monasteries, and other properties, as well as from any other acts of violence or retribution.”

Thus, Bartholomew assumed that such a scenario was possible. He likely included this “just in case”, believing he would be able to control his new “nestlings”.

But as we can see, this was clearly a miscalculation by the old patriarch.

His “nestlings” have tasted blood, spread their wings, and grown into powerful vultures.

And it seems that Patriarch Bartholomew may never be able to control them again.

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