On Patriarch Bartholomew's "Ukrainian" statements to Trump

Patriarch Bartholomew's press conference after meeting with Trump. Photo: Press Service of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Astonishing statements were made by Patriarch Bartholomew following the meeting with Trump.

He told the President of the USA that:

1. Constantinople "granted autocephaly about six years ago to the Church of Ukraine – they repeatedly asked for it, we agreed."

Recently, Patriarch Bartholomew has acknowledged that the UOC and the OCU coexist in Ukraine. Whom did he mean by the "Church of Ukraine"? The UOC did not ask him for autocephaly, and the OCU simply did not exist until December 2018. So which "Church of Ukraine" asked him for the Tomos? It was the UOC-KP and the UAOC, which Patriarch Bartholomew did not consider canonical Churches, and there are documents signed by the Patriarch himself about this. There was no "Church of Ukraine" that "repeatedly asked" Constantinople for autocephaly; the Patriarch told a falsehood.

2. "We gave them the opportunity to live independently from the Moscow center, which oppressed them for decades. Let me remind you of the Holodomor, the genocide orchestrated by Stalin, which led to the death of millions – three to four million Ukrainians."

a) As we know, Constantinople granted the Tomos not to the UOC, but to the non-canonical structures of the UOC-KP and the UAOC. To say that this was done for their "church independence from Moscow" is absolutely absurd because both the Filaret followers and the autocephalists were already 100% independent from it.

b) To substantiate the Tomos bestowal (in fact, the legalization of people without ordination) with the "Holodomor orchestrated by Stalin" is so strange that it is even uncomfortable to comment on. Stalin destroyed tens of thousands of priests and parishioners of the ROC. What about that? On the other hand, Sultan Mehmed II, during the capture of Constantinople, destroyed a huge number of Greeks. Why does Patriarch Bartholomew still communicate with the Turkish successors of Mehmed and even support their policy?

3. "It was fair for them to have this church independence from Moscow, which, as we all know, is an enemy of the Ukrainian people. And this enmity manifested in the war that began in February 2022."

In 2017, Patriarch Bartholomew called the ATO a "fratricidal war". Recently, he called the current war in Ukraine "fratricidal".

We cannot understand: are Ukrainians and Russians brothers or enemies for the Patriarch?

And is the "enemy" status of a nation a basis for legalizing a schism and granting it the status of an "autocephalous Church"?

These are all questions that remain unanswered. It’s clear that Trump doesn’t understand church matters in Ukraine, so you can tell him anything. And he can stay silent, too. For example, about how his actions have led to harsh persecutions of the UOC, beatings of clergy and parishioners, seizures, conflicts, and more. 

Once again, we acknowledge that Patriarch Bartholomew possesses the qualities of a brilliant politician. But when it comes to pastoral care, things are much more disappointing.

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