Bulgarian Patriarch: Athonite Monasteries Have Stopped Receiving The OCU
Patriarch Daniel says Mount Athos communities changed their stance after witnessing violence and church seizures by the schismatics.
SOFIA — The monasteries of Mount Athos that initially welcomed representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) have now changed their position and ceased to do so, said Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria in an interview with national television, as reported by the Union of Orthodox Journalists in Bulgaria.
"At first, the Athonite monasteries accepted clerics from the OCU, but now they no longer do," stated the Primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
According to Patriarch Daniel, this reversal came after the monks witnessed the methods employed by the OCU in Ukraine. “They see: when violence is used to seize churches, when priests are beaten, when the churches they have taken from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) stand empty,” he explained.
The Bulgarian Patriarch also drew attention to the troubling developments surrounding the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. “The state handed over the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to this church structure—and it stands empty. They hold cooking shows there,” he remarked.
Earlier, UOJ-America reported Patriarch Daniel’s belief that the issue of the OCU within global Orthodoxy will eventually be resolved. He suggested this will occur once all the Local Churches clearly recognize the true nature of the OCU.
And it is becoming clear. For example, we saw that at first the monasteries on Mount Athos accepted clerics from the OCU—but now they no longer do. Because they see: when violence is used, when churches are seized by brute force, when priests are killed, when churches stand empty—this cannot be ignored. The state took the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and handed it over to this new structure. And now, culinary show programs are being organized there...
When things are seen as they truly are, I believe that gradually they will come into proper order, and this problem will be overcome.
