Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, in addition to his amazing adherence to principles, has, as it turned out, an excellent style.
Metropolitan Seraphim wrote an open letter. Reason: enthronement of the new Metropolitan of Italy (Patriarchate of Constantinople), Exarch of Southern Europe Polycarp (Stavropoulos). In his letter, Seraphim, based on theses, examines the appeal of the Orthodox Metropolitan to the Pope of Rome.
Polycarp: “The meeting with Pope Francis went very well. It was a very cordial meeting of the son with his beloved father, the meeting of the bishop with the patriarch. I thanked him for the inspiring message that he sent me. As a bishop, I asked his papal blessing for my work and assured him in his fervent prayers that God would give him many years of physical and spiritual health for the good of the world.
Seraphim: The “cordiality” of his meeting with the Archbishop does not particularly surprise us, because our “own” unbridled adherents of the Union of Churches literally celebrate every meeting with the Pope. We are also not surprised that Polycarp feels like “the son of his beloved father”. To consider a heretic and usurper of the patriarchal throne, a Roman elder and anyone else as his father is Polycarp’s problem. However, we are surprised that Polycarp is called the bishop of the Orthodox Church and calls the pope his patriarch.
Interestingly, Metropolitan Seraphim asks, since when did Francis become the Ecumenical Patriarch? “Did the” Unification of Churches “take place and was his Italian diocese taken under the” protection “of Ancient Rome, maybe he is hiding it from us? Did he join the Order, became a papal priest and just wears Orthodox vestments?”
Metropolitan Seraphim asks such just questions.
Well, from our favorite. Metropolitan Polycarp of Italy fills us with sadness and anxiety.
“I repeat, reading it, we could not believe that the mouth of an Orthodox bishop utters words that can only be uttered by a fanatical papal” priest “in Orthodox clothing!”