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The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople visits Ukrainian refugees, denounces Russian invasion during visit to Poland
By Magda Viatteau | Poland
The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople – who is considered the primus inter pares or "first among equals" in the Orthodox hierarchy – has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and fighting between the two predominantly Orthodox countries, during a three-day visit to Poland.
"Any war is to be condemned, but a war between Orthodox Christians is absolutely unacceptable," said Bartholomew I on Tuesday in in a speech at the Stefan Wyszynski Catholic University in Warsaw.
The 82-year-old patriarch, who was invited to Poland by President Andrzej Duda, said he had come to the Eastern European country primarily to support refugees fleeing Russian aggression in neighboring Ukraine.
He also prayed for peace and expressed hope that the deep crisis within Orthodoxy -- which is being aggravated by the war -- could one day be overcome.
The current Church crisis is not the result of the Russian invasion, however. It was sparked in January 2019 when the Ecumenical Patriarchate officially recognized the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) after it broke from the Moscow Patriarchate.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow saw this as a schismatic act and broke off all contact with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Bartholomew lamented Orthodoxy's "crisis of unity", but said he hoped the faithful would one day "confess their faith together and reach for the same cup".
Later when he met with leaders of the Polish Catholic Church and a group of Ukrainians -- both refugees and those who have been living in Poland for a long time -- the Ecumenical Patriarch did not hesitate to denounce Russia for starting the war.
Addressing President Duda, he said he had come to Poland "to show solidarity and unite in prayer with millions of people who have been forced to abandon their homes due to an aggression that nothing can justify and due to the violence unleashed by Russia against sovereign Ukraine".
Breaking with the Patriarchate of Moscow
Marcin Przeciszewski, president of Poland's Catholic Information Agency (KAI), said the patriarch's March 29-31 visit had two main objectives.
The first was to meet with Ukrainians.
Bartholomew, who has been Ecumenical Patriarch since 1991, had wanted to go to Kiev. But since that was not possible, he chose to visit Poland, which has accepted more than two million Ukrainian refugees.
Although several hundred thousand of them have continued their journey to Western Europe, an estimated one and a half million Ukrainians have remained in Poland. There are about the same number of Ukrainians who were already living in the country well before the Russian invasion took place in late February.
Bartholomew's trip to Warsaw was reminiscent of the April 2016 visit he and Pope Francis made to the Greek island of Lesbos to meet refugees from the Middle East.
Przeciszewski said it's likely that the other objective of the patriarch's visit to Poland was to try to at least partially heal the wound that was opened in Orthodoxy by the conflict with Moscow over the autocephalous Church of Ukraine.
That wound became gaping after Patriarch Kirill legitimized the Russian "special operation" and denounced "evil forces" that prevent unity between Russia and Ukraine.
A number of autocephalous Orthodox Churches in other countries have now recognized the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).
But the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, led by Metropolitan Sawa, has reserved its position. That is probably out of deference to the faithful traditionally attached to the Moscow Patriarchate.
It is perhaps due to this concern that Sawa waited more than three weeks to condemn the Russian invasion. The Polish primate finally did so once the Patriarch of Constantinople's visit was announced.
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