The primate of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Jerome, said that America “wanted” him to recognize the OCU, the Dogma newspaper reports.

In the context of the conversation about the “autocephaly” of the OCU, Archbishop Jerome said that on the “Ukrainian issue” he was visited by the ambassador of America and three times by the ambassador of Russia.

“I told the American ambassador that I would be on the side of the patriarch (Bartholomew, – Ed.), and therefore your will (to recognize the OCU, – Ed.) would be fulfilled, but this is not a political choice. I am not doing this because America wants it, I am doing it because I respect what the patriarch stands for,” the head of the EOC said.

In a conversation with the Russian ambassador, Archbishop Jerome said that he and Patriarch Bartholomew were “one family.” “How can I leave my family to go somewhere else? I join the patriarch,” he summed up.