Commenting on the statement of one of the hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople that “the process of uniting Catholics and Orthodox is at the finish line,” the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, noted that the Patriarch of Constantinople has recently imagined himself to be the arbiter of the fate of Orthodoxy, the DECR ROC website writes.

According to the archpastor, one should not be surprised if after the unilaterally adopted anti-canonical decisions about Ukraine’s alleged belonging to the territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as well as after denying the existence of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has twelve and a half thousand parishes, more than two hundred and fifty monasteries and more than one hundred bishops, Patriarch Bartholomew will also take the sole decision that the Orthodox Church “reunites” with the Catholic Church.

“I think that against the background of such absurd and anti-canonical decisions, it would not be surprising if the Patriarch of Constantinople, without the consent of other Local Churches, without solving the many issues that are on the agenda of the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, would simply announce that there was a reunion, I would sign some kind of paper,” he said.