On Wednesday, the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians stated that Russia’s strong Orthodox Church shared blame for the Ukrainian conflict but that he was willing to support Russia’s postwar “spiritual regeneration.”
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s criticism of Russian Patriarch Kirill, who endorsed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, split the Orthodox Church.
Bartholomew outraged Moscow by recognizing the newly founded Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2019 and claimed Russian authorities were using the Church as an “instrument for their strategic purposes.”
“The church and the state leadership in Russia cooperated in the crime of aggression and shared the responsibility for the resulting crimes, like the shocking abduction of the Ukrainian children,” he told a Lithuanian parliament conference.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, accusing him of war crimes by illegally deporting hundreds of Ukrainian children. Russia claims Ukrainian children were moved for safety. It denies violating Ukrainian rights.
“Our interreligious conversation ought to focus on measures to fight and neutralize the potential of the Moscow Patriarchate leadership to undermine unity and to theologically legitimate criminal behavior,” Bartholomew added.
The Russian Orthodox Church was silent.
The Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul is considered “first among equals” in the Orthodox Church, which has 260 million members, and 100 million Russians.
“The mother church of Constantinople is ready to support its children in Ukraine and Russia again,” he stated. The Church calls Istanbul Constantinople.
“It is our common Christian responsibility to employ forces of communication to bring back our Russian brothers and sisters to our community of shared values,” he added, urging “spiritual regeneration” in Russia and Ukraine.
As supported by Patriarch Kirill, Putin portrays Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as a defensive response to a corrupt West that wants to destroy Russia and her culture.
Ukraine claims Russia is launching an unjustified war to seize territories and crush its independence.
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