Phanar head: UOC cares about foreign interests

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Photo: tsargrad.tv

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople stated that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church cares about foreign interests rather than church criteria. He said this in an interview with Ukrinform before his visit to Ukraine.

According to him, the OCU received autocephaly on the same canonical grounds as other Orthodox Churches, including "the Russian Church, to which they (the UOC – Ed.) strive to belong".

“The intervention of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is not non-canonical, in fact, it is not canonical to question this intervention. Obviously, they are not at all interested in the canonical order, since in our case they obviously give preference to foreign interests rather than church criteria,” the head of the Phanar said.

He also said that UOC believers refuse to accept reality.

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