US State Department pressured Local Churches to recognize OCU – journalist

OCU head Epifaniy Dumenko with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Photo: OCU press service

The US Department of State exerted systematic pressure on Local Orthodox Churches to secure recognition of the OCU, Ukrainian journalist Mykola Moiseenko said in an interview with Zoriana Radio, describing what he called direct interference by Washington in the affairs of the Orthodox world.

According to the journalist, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback played a major role in promoting the OCU. The officials made a series of visits to countries across the region, including Bulgaria, in an effort to persuade bishops to support the OCU.

“They were also in Bulgaria at the time, trying to persuade local hierarchs and the primates of the Churches to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” Moiseenko said.

The journalist expressed confidence that the creation of the OCU formed part of “a single overarching plan and scenario” pursued by Washington. He recalled that before 2018, Patriarch Bartholomew himself had recognized the UOC as the only canonical Church in Ukraine, but later changed his position under external pressure.

“A person cannot simply change his position for no reason. He is a grown man, a patriarch – and yet he changed it. I believe that could only have happened as a result of very serious processes,” he said.

“I cannot judge what percentage of this was personal initiative and what percentage came from the United States, but it is obvious that both were involved,” the journalist noted.

At the same time, he stressed that without Washington’s influence, support, and pressure on the Patriarch of Constantinople, “most likely, none of this would have happened.”

Moiseenko also stated that most Local Churches today – 10 or 11 out of 14 or 15 – offer the UOC only “silent support.” He described this position as passive, while emphasizing that believers in Ukraine remain grateful even for that.

“We are grateful even for this, because we understand that they, too, are being pressured – both by certain domestic political forces and by external forces,” he said.

As the UOJ reported, the Phanar’s Archdiocese in the United States attempted to disrupt meetings held in defense of the UOC.

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