Recent statements of the outgoing U.S. Secretary of State testify to his direct involvement in instigating the schism in the Orthodox world, caused by the creation of a new schismatic organisation, the so-called \u201cOCU,\u201d in Ukraine and its \u201crecognition\u201d by a number of Primates. Such opinion was expressed by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate\u2019s Department for External Church Relations, who in the Church and the World TV-programme commented on the remark by Mike Pompeo. Summing up the results of his work, the U.S. Secretary of State said that he had taken action on lots of fronts with Russia, including the front of religious freedom. According to the politician, he personally made sure that the United States of America had helped the \u201cMetropolitan of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine escape Russian influence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American politicians are unashamed to say that they not only control the political elites, political leaders in other states, but also openly interfere in the inter-church politics,\u201d Metropolitan Hilarion emphasised.<\/p>\n
As the hierarch pointed out, Mr. Pompeo thinks that he has a right to interfere in the church affairs, although he does not occupy any position in the Orthodox Church and is not even an Orthodox Christian. His words about liberating a certain \u201cUkrainian metropolitan\u201d from the Russian influence mean that the U.S. Secretary of State supported the schism.<\/p>\n
According to the archpastor, it can even be said that \u201cthis schism was instigated by the American authorities, because for a long time now they have been cherishing a hope for Russia\u2019s further weakening,\u201d which, in their opinion, also means \u201cfurther weakening of Orthodoxy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, a political strategy was worked out, at first aimed at alienating the Ukrainian Church from the Russian Church and then alienating the Greek Orthodoxy from the Russian Orthodoxy,\u201d Metropolitan Hilarion added, noting that, by and large, the project failed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Mr. Pompeo reckons it as his diplomatic victory and with these self-congratulatory reports wants to leave the political stage, this, of course, is a matter of his conscience,\u201d Metropolitan Hilarion said in conclusion.<\/p>\n
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