The plans of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to transform the power of Patriarch Bartholomew into a semblance of papal power in the Catholic Church are funded by the Greek community in the United States and supported by the American administration, said the head of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk.

“There is a solid Greek diaspora in America, which is the flock of the Patriarch of Constantinople and which financially supports, in fact, maintains the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In addition, the American administration has been providing political support to Constantinople for many years, including those ambitious plans that bears it up and partially realizes it, “Vladyka said on the Russia-24 TV channel, commenting on the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew to the United States.

He explained that the plans of the Patriarchate of Constantinople “boil down to the fact that from an honorable primacy the role of the Patriarch of Constantinople in the Orthodox Church grows into a kind of papal power in the Catholic Church.” According to Metropolitan Hilarion, “the main flock of the Patriarchate of Constantinople are in America.” At the same time, this church “practically has no believers left” in Turkey.