In his interview for the 75th anniversary, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia spoke about the reasons for the signing of the Tomos of the OCU by Patriarch Bartholomew. The interview was published by the Patriarchia.ru portal.

“I think there are two reasons. The first is the absolutely false self-understanding of Patriarch Bartholomew, who considers himself the leader of the Orthodox world. From the point of view of Orthodox ecclesiology, he is the first among equals, but he considers himself not the first among equals, but the first above all others. That is, he is tempted by the same idea, the implementation of which led to the division of Christianity into Eastern and Western. And now, I’m not afraid to say, on the personal initiative of Patriarch Bartholomew, the same topic of power has already divided the Orthodox Church.

This is a tragic page in the history of the Orthodox Church, and all of us, especially the Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches, need to do everything possible to celebrate the Divine Eucharist together again around a single throne, strengthening the Orthodox faith among our contemporaries. So that the Church can become a spiritual force capable of helping a person find ways in this very difficult modern life. <…>

… Another factor that could have a strong influence on Patriarch Bartholomew is the political factor. The situation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is always very unstable – when I say “always” I mean, of course, the time after the fall of the Byzantine Empire. The patriarchy was and is still under the control of non-Orthodox political forces, and in general, Patriarch Bartholomew is obliged, it seems to me, not only to obey, but to correlate his position with the liberal context that exists in Western European countries and the United States. In a sense, the Church in the West is quite vulnerable. Here is a simple thing: the Orthodox Church does not agree and will never agree with the newfangled idea of ​​marriage relations – we call cohabitation, which is now practiced by people of the same sex, a special sin, ”said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.