The Dormition Cathedral in Budapest has never belonged to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the statements of Patriarch Bartholomew about the “seizure” of the community by the Russian Orthodox Church, voiced at the International Eucharistic Congress in Hungary, are an encroachment on someone else’s property. This was stated by the head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, writes RIA Novosti.

Earlier, according to him, the Patriarchate of Constantinople had already tried to seize the cathedral in the capital of Hungary, but lost in all judicial instances.

“In the early 2000s, Constantinople filed claims against the Cathedral of the Dormition and filed a lawsuit. All three courts of law fell on the time when I ruled the Hungarian diocese. And we won all three instances – first the Budapest City Court, then the Court of Appeal and finally the Supreme Court.

Expressing such ideas publicly, he encroaches on someone else’s property, the copyright holder of which is determined by the court. In addition, by doing so, he casts doubt on the legality of the decisions of the Hungarian courts, ”said Metropolitan Hilarion.

Historically, the Cathedral of the Dormition in Budapest never belonged to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but was under the jurisdiction of the independent Metropolitanate of Karlovy Vary, which later became part of the Serbian Church. And when, since 1945, representatives of the parish have repeatedly appealed to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy I with a request to accept them under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, the ROC corresponded with the SOC.