On the Secret Meetings of Patriarch Bartholomew with an Anathematized Person

Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: FB of the Patriarchate of Constantinople

Former head of the Presidential Secretariat Viktor Baloha spoke about negotiations in 2008 regarding the creation of what was then the equivalent of the OCU. This included an account of how he took Filaret to Istanbul for meetings with Patriarch Bartholomew.

"Conversations and dinners with Bartholomew, Filaret, and Mefodiy (head of the UAOC – Ed.) went on for 7–8 hours," Baloha said.

The same was recounted by Filaret in 2017 to another politician, V. Kyrylenko (who only published it now): "We were negotiating that he (Bartholomew – Ed.) would come to the celebrations and the question of recognizing the Kyiv Patriarchate would be resolved there."

And what is most striking in this story is one thing: Patriarch Bartholomew held negotiations with a man whose anathema he himself had officially recognized.

In his letter to Patriarch Alexiy dated April 7, 1997, he writes about the anathema imposed on Filaret and Gleb Yakunin, as well as the defrocking of V. Rusantsov, A. Starina, and I. Shibayev:
"Having received information about the aforementioned decision, we brought it to the attention of the hierarchy of our Ecumenical Throne and gave instructions henceforth to have no ecclesiastical communion whatsoever with the above-named persons."

Of course, formally, dinners and negotiations cannot be called "ecclesiastical communion." Nevertheless, secret negotiations with a person excommunicated from the Church can hardly be said to accord with the content of this letter. And in general, such "secrecy-forming" meetings are entirely unbecoming of a primate who positions himself as the head of Orthodoxy.

"But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil" (Mt. 5:37), says Christ.

But apparently, not for the "first without equals."

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