The Patriarch of Constantinople continues to "torpedo" the Russian Orthodox Church internationally

Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople continues to criticize the Russian Orthodox Church internationally. on September 23, 2025, speaking at the annual Concordia 2025 summit in the United States, the head of the Phanar accused the Russian Orthodox Church of becoming «a veil behind which the dark forces of greed, prejudice and aggression do their evil in the world.» The Orthodox Times reported that.

«Religious wars are very rarely fought for religious purposes. But religion becomes the veil behind which the dark forces of greed, prejudice and aggression work their evil in the world. All of us who have studied history have seen how religion can be co-opted by secular power to create rifts between civilizations. We see this sad state of affairs among our co-religionists in Russia, as the Russian Church continues to cover up the war of the Russian state against Ukraine, a sovereign state, » said the head of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

We will remind, the day before the hierarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Cherkassy and Kanevsky Theodosius (Snigiryov) published an open appeal to Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew. The bishop urged the head of the Phanar to correct the mistake made in 2019, when the Ukrainian schism was legalized, which led to unprecedented persecution of the clergy and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.