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UThe Orthodox Churches have the right "to govern their religion according to their convictions, without outside interference," said Friday the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
"We support the ability of Ukrainians to worship as they see fit and hope it will be respected by all," said the top US diplomat.
Pompeo's remarks affirmed the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Christians in a controversy involving the Orthodox patriarchs of Moscow and Istanbul, who quarreled over the status of the Ukrainian churches. His interest in clerical conflict stems from one of the most atypical aspects of the Ukrainian crisis, the theological divide reflecting the violent political schism that Russia orchestrated in Crimea and war-torn eastern Ukraine.
"Tolerance, restraint and understanding are essential so that people of different religious backgrounds can live and prosper together in peace," said Pompeo. We urge Church and government representatives to actively promote these values as part of the establishment of a Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church. "
The invasion of eastern Ukraine by Russia, following the annexation of Crimea, gave rise to a conflict between some of the highest leaders of the Eastern Orthodox world. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople – the church uses the name that precedes the last Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine Empire – announced that it would recognize the independence of two Ukrainian churches hitherto anathematized , although the Russian Orthodox Church has claimed jurisdiction over the country since the 17th century.
"We decided that at the time, the anathema had been introduced for an insufficient number of reasons, for political reasons," said the patriarch's spokesman last week.
The decision to recognize the validity of two church bodies has vast ramifications for the earthly and spiritual realms.
"It is no exaggeration to write that the granting of autocephaly by the Russian Orthodox Church to millions of Ukrainian Orthodox believers is as important as the disintegration of the Russian Orthodox Church. USSR for Ukraine, "Taras Kuzio, an expert on Russian-Ukrainian controversy, said in September. position for the Atlantic Council. "Autocephaly will strengthen the growth of Ukrainian patriotism, support the national integration and cause the final divorce of Russia."
Russian officials, both from the government and from the Moscow church, reacted furiously. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the United States of backing an effort to unravel the unity of the Orthodox Church.
"The underlying idea is obvious – another step to separate Ukraine from Russia, not only politically but also spiritually," Lavrov said. "[I]Any intervention in the life of the church is legally prohibited in Ukraine, Russia and, I hope, in any other suitable country. "
The Eastern Orthodox world has no papacy, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, but the Patriarch of Constantinople is considered the "first among his peers". But the head of the Moscow church claimed that Bartholomew had overstepped his ties and severed his ties.
"No such split has ever taken place in the Orthodox Church," Irina de Quenoy of Georgetown University, author of The Orthodox Church in Russian politics, says TASS. "It is unprecedented that it is forbidden for believers to receive communion in the churches of Constantinople. This has never happened before and it is a very difficult move. "
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