Priest Miladin Mitrovic: decades of deliberate oppression of Orthodoxy

Speech of priest Miladin Mitrovic from the International Conference the Patriarchate of Constantinople as an instrument of politics, destructive activity of Patriarch Bartholomew – Center for geostrategic studies, 26. March 2025.year. Belgrade

International Conference: Patriarchate of Constantinople as an instrument of politics, destructive activity of Patriarch Bartholomew - Center for geostrategic studies

Dear friends, let me first of all warmly greet you and invoke God's blessing on all participants of today's conference. It is my great joy to be able to address you today, which is why I express my gratitude to the host for organizing this very important and important event.

Contemporary geopolitical processes of global proportions and socio-political crises caused by the aggressive inheritance of liberal ideology have undoubtedly left a negative impact on Universal orthodoxy. It is with a great sense of regret that we must acknowledge the fact that the Orthodox Church today as a whole is facing a large number of challenges and difficult problematic situations, which in essence are the result of continuous work aimed at discretizing and denigrating Orthodoxy, as the only sincere defense in the fight against various globalist processes. Orthodoxy, as the only right and not sinful guardian of the original Gospel teaching, remains lonely in the desire to preserve the world and humanity within the framework of high moral values, where every man would have the opportunity for a dignified and free choice.

Today it becomes too obvious that the open schism within Orthodoxy, which was directly caused by the granting of Tomos on autocephaly to the Ukrainian schismatics by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, is only the culmination of decades of deliberate oppression of the Orthodox faith by Western imperialist circles. The schism in Ukraine, which today has become the main and fundamental wound that is increasingly and deeply destroying the unity of the Orthodox world, has revealed all the secrets of the behind-the-scenes work aimed at undermining the authority of the Orthodox Church. The confrontation with the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, as the largest local Orthodox Church, which, as the most dominant, is called to protect the interest and postulates of orthodox teaching globally began with tragic events in fraternal Ukraine. The creation of the so – called Orthodox Church in Ukraine, in which the main actor and Realizer was the Washington envoy-Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, was a real offensive launched against the Russian Orthodox Church, aimed at irrevocably and ideologically breaking the unity of the Orthodox world. All responsibility for the suffering and persecution of millions of canonical Christians in Ukraine lies with the conscience of Patriarch Bartholomew. From the very beginning it was clear that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, created according to the wishes of Western mentors, was a purely political project and that there was not the slightest touch of spirituality in it. The representatives of this pseudo – church do not even deserve to be called "schismatics" - this is a true sect, the result of Political Technologies, which in essence has nothing to do with the history of Christianity.

In this way, the Ukrainian church issue, which has found itself at the epicenter of the Pan-Orthodox conflict, is far from local in importance. It exposed the problem of special proportions and revealed a serious violation of the canonical order of the Orthodox faith. Phanar, by his one-sided actions, trampled upon the fundamental principles of Orthodox ecclesiology, which at least qualifies as a pure form of heresy. The patriarch of Constantinople, with a gross violation of Orthodox tradition and canonical order, arbitrarily and officially declared himself the head of all Orthodox primates – in the non-canonical Tomos on "granting autocephaly" to the so-called Church of Ukraine, he confirms that, in the long-standing example of the Roman popes, he stands out as the head of the entire Orthodox Church.

Although it is rare for anyone to imagine such a rapid deterioration of the situation in world Orthodoxy, the crisis that broke out is not accidental and by no means comes down to the personal position of Patriarch Bartholomew. It can be said that this problem has matured for decades and even centuries. Its premises are partly ethnophyletic in nature (the preference of national interests over general church interests.), and also geopolitical. In this case, there is also a component of corruption. It is therefore necessary to point out that the main factor that undermines the church unity of Orthodoxy for centuries, and which in our time has reached its culmination is the cultural and religious chauvinism inherent in some Greek church magnates, who they call singularly and sublimely Hellenism.

No nation, no trace of it left in church history, can claim any religious exclusivity and, on this basis, claim supremacy over other Christian peoples and their subjugation. However, such claims of Greek spiritual leaders (not all of them, of course) have been present many times in history, and today in the person of Patriarch Bartholomew especially resoundingly. The extent of Hellenic claims to ecclesiastical supremacy was determined primarily by the political situation. It is clear that after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, when Russia became the only Orthodox Empire whose representation the Greeks were forced to constantly resort to, the official city itself, in relations with the Russian church, was forced to soften its ambitions. In doing so, it is important to mention that other Orthodox peoples in the territory of the Ottoman Empire at the same time experienced cruel oppression not only from the Turks, but also from the phanariots.

In recent years, as it seems to Patriarch Bartholomew, the geopolitical situation has become the most favorable for the realization of Phanar's long-standing aspirations to establish his hegemony in world Orthodoxy. At first an attempt was made to achieve this goal "in a cultural way", through the holding of the Council of Crete, whose purpose, of course, was not to resolve some accumulated issues within Orthodoxy, but to approve a new model of governance of the Orthodox Church with an unrivalled Ecumenical Patriarch at its head. After this plan failed by the grace of God, Phanar moved to fight for his sovereignty "in an uncultured way", using the ideological course of the collective West aimed at isolating Russia and the desire to completely separate Ukraine and its people from the spiritual and historical connection with Mother Russia. Therefore, Phanar, in the person of Patriarch Bartholomew, voluntarily accepted the role of one in a series of political levers that has a strategic goal to break the unity not only of the Russian-Ukrainian relationship, but also the very nature of the unity of the Orthodox Church.

Many patriarchs of Constantinople throughout the centuries-old history of the existence of this local Orthodox Church have claimed the canonically unfounded and unjustified idea of the "primacy of Honor" in the Orthodox world. However, it is difficult to remember that any of them more than Patriarch Bartholomew, with such a bureaucratic obsession, demanded power comparable to the position of the Roman Pope in the Catholic world. A personal passion for power and a desire to reach new territories at all costs singles out the Personality of Bartholomew as one of the most negative persons in the entire history of the Church of Constantinople and of orthodoxy in general.

The behavior of the Vertholomei can be loosely defined as a kind of new heresy of "Bartholomew" or an orthodox version of popocesarism, which threatens a new historical schism in Orthodoxy. In order to understand what brought the patriarch of Constantinople to this edge, it is necessary to look at some of the key events in his life and the external influences to which he was surrounded. Growing up in the family of a small Greek Merchant in Turkey, the future patriarch realized quite early on that without maneuvering and powerful external patronage it would not be possible to achieve his ambitions. For him, the key impetus for his later career after graduation was studying in Rome and later working at the famous Pontifical Oriental Institute, which at the time was an important Western Center for the study of geopolitical processes. After the Roman period, his relationship with the Vatican became even more intimate. For this reason, many zealots accuse him of almost worshipping Catholics. But in fact, Patriarch Bartholomew brought primarily envy and jealousy from Rome, expressed in the desire that he himself occupy a similar and analogous position of papal authority in the Orthodox world. Combined with the knowledge of the specifics of Vatican politics he acquired there, and a personal passion for power, he personally decided to follow all his predecessors in the cathedral chapter of Constantinople and openly set out to overthrow the canonical order to satisfy his own appetites.

The current policy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Ukraine is in a sense a continuation of its hegemonic line, which began in 1996. under the leadership of the Exarchate of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, which was then conducted with the assistance of the official Tallinn. At the time, Russia was politically correct in expressing its dissatisfaction, but in the end, in order to preserve the unity of Orthodoxy, it came to terms with this, which proved to be very wrong – because it was from this springboard that Phanar began his expansion for new territories in Europe. The separation of canonical territories from the Moscow Patriarchate, by aggressive and non-canonical methods, is the first step on the path towards their later inclusion in the orbit of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. After Kiev, similar steps followed in Moldova, Latvia, Kazakhstan and so on. And it does not matter that all this causes irreparable damage to world Orthodoxy; for Constantinople and Patriarch Bartholomew, their own survival, which they see in the expansion, is more important. The reasons for such behavior lie largely in the contradictory nature of the mission he chose. To really be "in charge", you must at least have enough herd, but this is desperately lacking. Apart from a small number of parishes in Turkey, in Europe, the Ecumenical Patriarch has so far only taken care of the islands of Crete and Mount Athos in Greece. Its main base lies on the other side of the ocean. Both materially and politically, Phanar depends on the American Orthodox Church, which is its Exarchate and supported by the US government. Therefore, the main reason for the blind pursuit of American interests by Constantinople and especially by Patriarch Bartholomew, is purely of a financial nature – in the spirit of "American democracy" Washington can leave both the financial and political "stalemate" of Bartholomew without seeking anyone's consent, the moment he denounces their obedience. In the face of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, by which the collective West is trying to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, Bartholomew's inconsistent behavior and the character and nature of the policy he is officially pursuing on the international stage becomes absolutely understandable.

It is therefore necessary to defend the purity of the canonical tradition preserved by the Orthodox Church and to reject all attempts at its papist distortion, whether it comes from the West or from the East. It is necessary to thoroughly and comprehensively identify the dogmatic, canonical and moral-ethical inconsistency of the claims and actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and especially its Patriarch Bartholomew. This approach will undoubtedly help to preserve the unity of the Orthodox faith and submit to public distortion all attempts aimed at undermining its authority and the saving mission that our Holy Church has carried throughout the world for centuries.

Thank you for your attention!

Note: the Center for geostrategic studies expresses huge gratitude to Father Miladin Mitrovic for his participation in the conference

Source: Center for Geostrategic Studies

Home photo: Father Miladin Mitrović, elder of the Church of St. Basil of Ostrog in Banja Luka (glassrpske.com)

2. April 2025.