In Orthodoxy There Is Schism Between Moscow and Constantinople. But Rome Doesn’t Know Whose Side to Take
By Sandro Magister
Sandro Magister is an Italian author and journalist for both L'Esspresso and Chiesa. He is considered among the world's foremost "Vaticanistas", the group of highly-respected and expert observers of the Catholic Church, the papacy, and the inner workings of the Vatican.
Right when the rumors are swirling about the place and date of the much-vaunted new meeting between Pope Francis and the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow, Kirill - now projected, with Kazakhstan out of the running, for the Hungarian abbey of Pannonhalma - relations between Catholicism and Orthodoxy are in reality paralyzed.
The serious trouble for Francis comes from what is happening within the Orthodox world. Where Kirill is in open conflict, on the brink of schism, with two of the historic patriarchates of the East, those of Constantinople and Alexandria, the former particularly close to Rome.
What has infuriated Kirill to the point of breaking Eucharistic communion with ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew was the latter’s decision, formalized on January 6 2019, to recognize the autonomy from Moscow of the newly formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine, governed by Metropolitan Epiphanius.
The patriarchate of Moscow immediately condemned this recognition as illegitimate. Moscow considers the Ukrainian Church as part of itself, as it always has, and in fact a substantial portion of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, with Metropolitan Onufriy, continues to be subject to the patriarchate of Moscow. While on the contrary Bartholomew, as ecumenical patriarch and “primus inter partes” in the Orthodox world as a whole, maintains he has the authority to erect “autocephalous” Churches, which govern themselves, and is acting accordingly.
If to this are added the state of war between Russia and Ukraine and the very close link between Kirill and Russian president Vladimir Putin, one can understand how radical the clash between the two patriarchates is, which ultimately consists in the Moscow patriarch’s refusal to attribute to the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople that primatial authority which he claims.
Emboldened by its numerical and political influence in the field of Orthodoxy, Moscow immediately cautioned all the other Orthodox Churches not to recognize the new Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Only the Churches of Greece and Cyprus, most closely linked to Constantinople, did so. But now that the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria “and of all Africa” Theodore II has done the same, Moscow has reacted as no one had expected. *
The first signal dates back to December 2019, when the patriarchate of Moscow took from the patriarchate of Alexandria and joined to itself six African parishes, entrusted to Russian missionaries.
In Orthodoxy, each patriarchate has authority over its own canonical territory, in which no other patriarchate can interfere, and Africa belongs by ancient tradition to the patriarchate of Alexandria.
But in Moscow they have broken with this very tradition, invading another’s camp, thereby doing to others what they have never tolerated for themselves. Last December 29 the synod of the Russian patriarchate established its own exarchate for Africa, with two dioceses: the first based in Cairo and with jurisdiction over the northern part of the continent, the second based in South Africa, for the southern part. The two dioceses have been supplied with 102 priests, who have switched from the patriarchate of Alexandria to obedience to Moscow.
The new exarchate has its headquarters not in Africa but in Moscow, and has been entrusted to Archbishop Leonid of Vladikavkaz, with the title of exarch of Africa.
The reaction from Alexandria was immediate. On December 30 Patriarch Theodore II expressed his “deepest sorrow at the synodal decision of the Russian Patriarchate to establish an Exarchate within the normal limits of the jurisdiction of the Ancient Church of Alexandria.” And he announced that the affront would be discussed at “an upcoming session of the Synod of the Patriarchate” at which the “relevant decisions will be taken”: that is, at the session already convened on January 10 in order to proceed also with the appointment of the successor of the deceased metropolitan of Kampala and all Uganda, Jonah Lwanga, a personality of prestige and of exemplary spirituality, an African pillar of the Alexandrian patriarchate.
In a statement issued on January 12 at the end of the synodal session, the patriarchate of Alexandria denounced “the pestilential confusion” created by the Russian Church among “the children in Christ whom we have begotten,” the African faithful, and announced “the faithful and immediate application of ecclesiastical sanctions, prescribed by the divine and holy canons, to transgressors,” without however making it clear if such sanctions will include the rupture of Eucharistic communion with the Russian Church.
But the aims of the patriarchate of Moscow are not restricted to Africa, it also wants to strike elsewhere and higher. In an interview with the Novosti agency, the powerful Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, president of the external relations department of the Moscow patriarchate, said that also in Turkey the Russian Church could do what it is doing in Africa, because “we cannot deny pastoral care to the Orthodox faithful in the situation when the Patriarch of Constantinople has taken the side of the schism.”
It cannot therefore be ruled out that Moscow will soon proceed to establish its own parishes in Turkey as well, that is, in the canonical territory of the patriarchate of Constantinople. But there is more. In the same interview cited above, Metropolitan Hilarion stated that only “the conciliar wisdom of the Church can heal the schism in the world Orthodox community.” Enigmatic words that evoke the convening of a summit between the heads of the Orthodox Churches, of the type held for the first time in Amman, Jordan, on February 26 2020.
In reality, the heads of only a few Churches met in Amman, those closest to the patriarchate of Moscow. And it was Kirill who called the shots.
Kirill evoked the schism of 1054 between Constantinople and Rome to immediately add that, today, after a millennium, Orthodoxy is again faced with a schism that also has its roots in a different vision of “primacy.”
Without ever naming the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople but referring to him in a transparent way, Kirill singled out none other than Bartholomew as the culprit of the new schism, because by availing himself of his title of “primus inter pares” he presumes to decide on his own for all, without accepting “a system of conciliar control over the actions of the primatial see.”
In Amman, Kirill enunciated six points as matters of discussion to which a future summit should be dedicated, all six aimed at scaling down the powers of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.
And this is precisely the goal that the Moscow patriarchate wants to reach. After spoiling, with its absence, the pan-Orthodox council convened by Bartholomew in Crete in 2016 after sixty years of tormented preparation, Kirill now wants be the one to govern the future summit aimed at disarming of all primatial authority his “schismatic” rival of Constantinople.
The first meeting between Pope Francis and Kirill (see photo) took place at the Havana airport on February 12 2016, four months before the failed pan-Orthodox council. The second meeting between the two, if and when it takes place, could herald a definitive rupture in the camp of Orthodoxy.
But already today, between Moscow and Constantinople, it is not easy for Rome to find the right path.
http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2022/01/13/in-orthodoxy-there-is-schism-between-moscow-and-constantinople-but-rome-doesn%E2%80%99t-know-whose-side-to-take/
