The spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians, speaking Friday before a New York audience, defended his 2019 decision to recognize an independent church in Ukraine, and he denounced the Russian Orthodox Church as giving a “ringing endorsement to the invasion of Ukraine.”
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople made the remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations during a stop on his 12-day visit to the United States. It also included meetings with President Donald Trump and other political leaders.
Bartholomew has long been critical of the Russian Orthodox Church and its support for the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He reiterated those criticisms on Friday, saying the Russian church had endorsed the “murder of fellow Orthodox Christians by the Putin regime.” Russia and Ukraine are both majority-Orthodox countries.
Even before the invasion, the Russian Orthodox Church had declared in 2018 that a break in communion existed between it and Constantinople. That came as Bartholomew prepared to recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as independent the following year. The Moscow church claims that Ukraine is part of its church territory, but Bartholomew claimed jurisdiction to recognize an independent church.
On Friday, Bartholomew said that the Moscow church has gone against Orthodox teaching in 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 dead have their sins forgiven …