Greek edition about OCU: Phanar let the Trojan Horse in Orthodoxy

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople

The Church of Constantinople intervened in the religious life of Ukraine in order to let the Trojan Horse in world Orthodoxy, the Greek edition ThessPress.gr stressed.

“Being involved in Ukrainian affairs, the Patriarchate of Constantinople let the "Trojan Horse" in world Orthodoxy, legalizing under the guise of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (OCU) the schismatic structure UOC KP, unrecognized by the Orthodox Churches, along with the enormous ambitions of its Primate Filaret,” write the Greek edition.

According to the journalists, recognition of the OCU is only the first step towards the implementation of the long-term strategy of Patriarch Bartholomew, aimed at strengthening the position of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and consolidating its power over other Local Churches.

The second step, according to the Phanar, should have been evidence that it has overcome the schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, uniting the UOC KP and UAOC and transferring the overwhelming number of parishes of UOC to the OCU with the active support of the Ukrainian government. And the third is the recognition by the other Local Churches of the newly created religious structure and the Tomos granted by Patriarch Bartholomew.

Patriarch Bartholomew could interpret this recognition as the consent of the local Churches with the unconditional supremacy of the Phanar protector by analogy with the Pope's protectorate in the Roman Catholic Church to strengthen its influence in the Orthodox world and weaken the main competitors, first of all, Athos and the Russian Orthodox Church.

However, the head of UOC KP Filaret began to “play his own game”, in which he tries to defeat the Phanar in the struggle for the influence in the Orthodox world, the Greek journalists comment on the religious situation in Ukraine. First, Filaret, in violation of the existing agreements, pushed his close associate into the OCU's central position, making UAOC allies worry. Then Filaretos "forgot about the idea of unification" and became the main ideologue of the violent seizure of temples and parishes of the canonical UOC, which aggravated the schism in Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

“Even the closest associates of Filaret admit the fact of unprecedented pressure on the clergy and parishioners of the UOC-MP (UOC – Ed.). For example, Metropolitan Alexander Drabinko, who passed to the OCU, explicitly stated in an interview on Uaportal.com that the birth of OCU as a "new child" in the ecclesiastical environment of Ukraine occurs through the "rape" of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the leadership of Metropolitan Onuphry. In his interview with the “Focus”, OCU Archbishop Eustratiy (Zoria) acknowledged that while choosing between unification and autocephaly, the OCU leaders consciously decided to concentrate on autocephaly,” the Greek edition noted.

According to the author of the publication, the main purpose of Filaret’s “game” is to take personal control of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, to strengthen the OCU's position and turn it into a powerful new "center of authority" in world Orthodoxy, comparable to the influence and power of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Orthodox Church of Russia. Filaret has repeatedly stated that his main task is the construction of the Ukrainian Patriarchate, which will seriously affect the rule-making in the Orthodox world. Filaretos has fought for autocephaly for so many years not to put his neck in Constantinople's yoke instead of Russian’s, concluded the online edition.

We recall that on May 9, 2019, the “Honorary Patriarch” of the OCU Filaret Denisenko once again declared that no one dissolved the UOC KP. “The fact is that the Kiev Patriarchate is not liquidated. They say that it is liquidated. Only the one who created the Kiev Patriarchate can liquidate it,” he said.

Read also