Constantinople hierarch: We told Macron – 70% of Ukrainians want the Tomos

Patriarch Bartholomew and Emmanuel Macron. Photo: orthodoxie

Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, in an interview with the French magazine Le Point, shared details of a meeting between Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace on April 23, 2024. During that meeting, Macron asked the Patriarch to explain why the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) was granted a Tomos of autocephaly.

“In response to the French president’s request, the Patriarch explained his 2019 decision to grant autocephaly – that is, ecclesiastical independence – to Orthodox believers in Ukraine. The main and decisive motive was to ensure freedom of religion for the 70% of Ukraine’s Orthodox citizens who had found themselves under the canonical dependence of the Moscow Patriarchate, which had supported their clear aggressor – Putin’s Russia – since 2014 and the annexation of Crimea,” Metropolitan Emmanuel stated.

He added that he was impressed by President Macron’s “deep understanding of the historical and religious complexities that shaped the European continent in the past and were thought to be overcome.”

When asked whether the OCU’s autocephaly had caused a schism in Orthodoxy, Metropolitan Emmanuel replied in the negative.

He justified his position by saying, “It was Constantinople that baptized Kyiv in 988, when Moscow did not yet exist as a significant center.”

“It was Constantinople that granted autocephaly to Moscow in 1589 and elevated it to the rank of a patriarchate, assigning it fifth place after the ancient apostolic sees of the East. It was Constantinople that, facing pressure from the Tsarist regime in the 18th century and later the Soviet regime in the 20th century, defended the aspirations for independence of Orthodox peoples – Slavic, Baltic, and Scandinavian – and provided canonical grounds for that independence after 1991,” the hierarch said.

Earlier, it was reported that Patriarch Bartholomew discussed Orthodoxy in Ukraine with President Macron.

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