“What is happening in Ukraine is a tragedy, it is a shame that will stigmatize those who caused it, those who turned out to have no fear of God. Holy Week does not seem to be over for the war-torn Ukrainian people, for the mothers, and for both sides mourning their children. And yet, Christ is Risen “, declares the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
In an interview given to the newspaper “I KATHIMERINI KYPROU”, the Primate of Orthodoxy sends a message of love and support to the afflicted people of Ukraine, while categorically rejecting the interventions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate inside the Church.
Asked if the prolongation of the war worries him, the leader of the Mother Church answers: “Of course he worries us. And it hurts us deeply … We have said many times that war is not the solution. It should not even be the last resort. The way to resolve any disputes should be dialogue and only dialogue. I would not like to comment on the attitude and choices of the Russian political leadership, which is judged by their results, and I am sure that it will be judged further in the near and distant future by other persons and institutions and, of course, by history itself. , whose pages are currently written in the blood of the innocent victims of this war. However, we are convinced that the Russian people, at least our Christian Orthodox brothers, can not agree with what is happening to the detriment of their neighboring Ukrainian people. “And we have all seen this with the reaction of a courageous faction that opposes fratricidal war and is in favor of peace.”
Regarding the attitude of the Patriarch of Moscow in the Russia-Ukraine war, Mr. Bartholomew emphasizes that in the face of the death of innocent people, in the bombing of civilians, in the leveling of entire cities, in the face of this human tragedy, sermons can not be heard that characterize a war as “sacred”. This is something very sad. It causes us deep sorrow and pain. But it causes more pain to the Ukrainians themselves. Because you can not claim to be a brother to another people and bless the war waged by your state. You can not insist that Ukraine belongs to you ecclesiastically, but let the faithful of the ecclesiastical structure under Moscow be killed and their temples destroyed by the Russian bombing. “Unless they hope that the military invasion will settle their ecclesiastical claims.”
Finally, regarding the allegations about the interventions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the procedures of electing a new Primate in the Church of Cyprus, the Ecumenical Patriarch is categorical:
“There is no intervention of the Ecumenical Throne, indirect or direct inside the Most Holy Church of Cyprus. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has never interfered and does not interfere voluntarily in the internal affairs of any local autocephalous Church … The Church of Cyprus has a Primate and any other discussion wherever it comes from is disrespectful to the face of Brother Chrysostom, who throughout he worked in his ministry with all his might for the people of God, for its Pan-Orthodox unity and for the promotion of the inter-Christian dialogue “.
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