Constantinople moves towards isolation
The decision of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to lift the anathema imposed by the Russian Orthodox Church on the head of the Kyiv schismatics will encounter resistance from other Orthodox churches.
The Kiev online newspaper “Strana” writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
It is noted that by lifting the anathema, the Phanar opens the way to direct dialogue with schismatics, which makes it possible in the future both to accept them into its church structure, and in the even more distant future - to make it autocephalous.
“However, there is another side to the abolition of the anathema. First of all, it is ecclesiastical and legal: one Orthodox Church cannot lift the excommunication imposed by another. This is what opponents of Constantinople’s decisions say. And in world Orthodoxy, where there is no Catholic principle of “one main church,” such a “veto” has not been practiced in the foreseeable past,” the publication points out.
Thus, other churches can continue to consider Filaret’s “church” to be schismatics.
“And the main thing is to change your attitude accordingly towards Bartholomew, who legalized the schism in one of the largest Orthodox countries in the world. Of course, someone will support Constantinople. But it is obvious that lifting the anathema from Filaret and “healing the schism” will in fact give rise to an even greater schism – already in world Orthodoxy. Which may end not in strengthening the role of Constantinople, but, on the contrary, in its isolation,” the publication predicts.
As PolitNavigator reported, Constantinople officially recognized Filaret and began to "squeeze" Ukraine from the Russian Church.
Constantinople is moving toward isolation.