Elder Gabriel: US pressured Patriarch Bartholomew to intervene in UOC affairs

Joe Biden and Patriarch Bartholomew. Photo: Orthodoxia News Agency

Renowned Orthodox theologian Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Bunge) said that the head of the Ecumenical Patriarchate intervened in Church affairs in Ukraine under direct pressure from the U.S. government.

The 86-year-old elder, who lives at a monastery in Roveredo, Switzerland, shared details he said had become known to him. According to Gabriel, Patriarch Bartholomew acknowledged the real reasons behind his decisions in a private conversation with a Greek ambassador.

“I know from a reliable source that Patriarch Bartholomew told a Greek ambassador that if the Americans had not put such intense pressure on him, he would never have done it – he would never have split the Church,” Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel said.

He added that some other primates of Local Churches had also yielded to similarly intense pressure.

“Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens also came under tremendous pressure and gave in. But why did these men, our primates, not simply put their panagias on the table and say, ‘No, not with me. I do not want to stain my good name’? Personally, I cannot understand it.”

Elder Gabriel particularly emphasized what he described as the gravity of the canonical offense committed by those responsible for the schism.

“A bishop or patriarch who has caused a schism in the Church, whatever the reasons, cannot wash away that sin even with his own blood,” Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel said. “That is what the Holy Fathers teach.”

The Swiss patristics scholar expressed regret over what he described as the lack of repentance among those responsible and said that such actions would inevitably fail the judgment of history.

As the UOJ reported, a U.S. State Department official discussed religious freedom in Ukraine with an exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

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