Patriarch Bartholomew defends recognition of independent Ukrainian church

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson welcomes Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for a gathering successful the speaker's bureau astatine the Capitol successful Washington, Wednesday. [J. Scott Applewhite/AP]

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, speaking Friday earlier a New York audience, defended his 2019 determination to admit an autarkic religion successful Ukraine, and helium denounced the Russian Orthodox Church arsenic giving a “ringing endorsement to the penetration of Ukraine.”

The spiritual person of Eastern Orthodox Christians made the remarks earlier the Council connected Foreign Relations during a stop connected his 12-day visit to the United States. It besides included meetings with President Donald Trump and different governmental leaders.

Bartholomew has agelong been captious of the Russian Orthodox Church and its support for the full-scale Russian penetration of Ukraine successful 2022.

He reiterated those criticisms connected Friday, saying the Russian religion had endorsed the “murder of chap Orthodox Christians by the Putin regime.” Russia and Ukraine are some majority-Orthodox countries.

Even earlier the invasion, the Russian Orthodox Church had declared successful 2018 that a interruption successful communion existed betwixt it and Constantinople. That came arsenic Bartholomew prepared to admit the Orthodox Church of Ukraine arsenic autarkic the pursuing year. The Moscow religion claims that Ukraine is portion of its religion territory, but Bartholomew claimed jurisdiction to admit an autarkic church.

On Friday, Bartholomew said that the Moscow religion has gone against Orthodox teaching successful promoting a “Russian world” ideology that deems Russia a spiritual protector of a wider territory, including Ukraine.

Moscow Patriarch Kirill has defended the war, saying Russia’s war dormant person their sins forgiven and presiding implicit a assembly that called the penetration a “holy war” against a Western world it considers “fallen into Satanism.”

Ukrainians are “no longer subject to a religion that has compromised itself,” Bartholomew said. “They person the state of conscience they desired.”

But the Russian religion lone recognizes the legitimacy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is historically under the Moscow church’s authority. It has attempted to region itself from Moscow due to the fact that of the latter’s support of the invasion, but Ukrainian authorities aren’t convinced it has made a cleanable interruption and are seeking to prohibition it.

Bartholomew’s wide-ranging speech Friday besides called for the planetary assemblage to work to bring bid to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and related conflicts, and helium decried the emergence of online extremism and governmental violence. He applauded the United States’ law system of checks and balances but urged against excluding religion from the nationalist square, citing George Washington’s punctuation that “religion and morality are indispensable” to bully government.

Bartholomew is considered archetypal among equals among Orthodox patriarchs, but helium lacks the powerfulness of a Catholic pope. Each Orthodox jurisdiction, organized mostly on nationalist lines, governs itself while sharing such things arsenic creeds and sacraments.

Bartholomew, who is based successful Istanbul and leads a small Orthodox flock successful Turkey, besides oversees jurisdictions abroad, notably the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

In contrast, Kirill oversees by acold the largest Eastern Orthodox jurisdiction successful the world, with astir 100 cardinal radical successful Russia alone, according to a 2017 planetary survey by the Pew Research Center. The Moscow religion besides claims jurisdiction implicit some churches successful different countries, including the United States.

Kirill and Russian governmental leaders person justified the penetration successful portion by claiming Ukraine to beryllium portion of the “Russian world” and citing humanities grievances of the religion against alleged Western encroachment. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Bartholomew is scheduled to person the prestigious Templeton Prize connected September 24 successful New York successful grant of his outspoken work connected behalf of the planetary environment. [AP]