Hierarch of Bulgarian Orthodox Church criticizes head of Phanar for creating OCU

The hierarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Daniel of Vidin, who is one of the three candidates for the post of Primate of the BOC, criticized the policy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople regarding the Ukrainian church crisis. The hierarch is convinced that the Local Churches have good canonical reasons not to recognize the OCU, since many representatives of this structure are deprived of apostolic reception or banned from ministry for objective reasons. The hierarch of the BOC said this in an interview with Radio Bulgaria, according to the website BNR.BG.

«In practice, the priesthood in it faces problems of apostolic succession. There are those excommunicated, for solid canonical reasons, who were received and reinstated illegally and without repentance. And, despite this, Patriarch Bartholomew tried to legitimize them by issuing the so-called Tomos, a document on the foundation of this non-canonical structure,» — the hierarch said.

Metropolitan Daniel added that the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew in Ukraine — instead of overcoming the church schism — led to an even deeper crisis, as representatives of the structure he created organized real persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is recognized by all local Churches.

«He signed and proclaimed two non-canonical structures, uniting them into the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), and recognized the newly created entity as the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The question is, however, what is the fate of the UOC, which was universally recognized at that time, five years ago, and to this day, by all local Orthodox churches, with Metropolitan Onufriy as its head? Five years have passed, and churches, in particular Greek-speaking churches, such as the Albanian Church, or those close to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, such as the Jerusalem Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Antioch, do not recognize these structures. There is a beautiful letter from Albanian Archbishop Anastasios from Tirana — he justifies his vision on this issue and emphasizes that the issuance of this Tomos to unrepentant schismatic groups with problematic priesthood is unacceptable. Patriarch Bartholomew was confident that in this way millions of Orthodox Christians, deprived of communion with the Church, would join it. And instead of peace reigning, as he assumed, he incited an even more fierce division, in which literally these people whom he proclaimed canonical began to persecute the canonical Church. They take away churches, beat priests, kill them, are these Christians? This is absurd, but the division is a fact,» — Metropolitan Daniel added.

As reported earlier, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church published a program of events for June 29-30, 2024, related to the election of the head of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. The previously announced participation of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the election of the Bulgarian Patriarch was canceled for unknown reasons. The head of the Phanar, among other Primates of the Local Churches, is expected to attend a solemn service and enthronement on June 30.