The Ecumenical Patriarchate responded today to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) that it would not comment on "its latest lies, insults and fabrications," just as it had previously "avoided commenting on countless similar attacks that came from church or political centers and figures in Russia."
"Fictional scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information by all kinds of propagandists do not discourage the Ecumenical Patriarchate from continuing its service and ecumenical mission," the Patriarchate notes, according to Greek media.
The SVR press service on Monday, in a statement carried by the Russian news agency TASS, criticized Patriarch Bartholomew for his political stance on Ukraine, as well as on other issues.
The Russian service called the Patriarch of Constantinople "the Antichrist" and "the embodiment of the devil" and claims that British secret services "actively support Bartholomew by fostering a Russophobic climate in Europe."
The SVR accuses the Ecumenical Patriarch of "relying on his ideological allies represented by local nationalists and neo-Nazis" in an attempt to separate the Orthodox churches of the Baltic countries from the Moscow Patriarchate and include them in "artificial religious structures" under the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The SVR also claims that the Ecumenical Patriarch plans to grant autocephaly to the unrecognized Montenegrin Orthodox Church "with the aim of causing harm to the Serbian Orthodox Church."
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At the end of the statement, the SVR even claims that "it is being noticed in church circles that Patriarch Bartholomew is literally dissolving the living Body of the Church" and compares the Patriarch of Constantinople to "false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits."
The Ecumenical Patriarchate wrote in today's statement that "The Mother Church of Constantinople - the Mother of the Churches of Russia - expresses its deepest sorrow over the new Russian attack on the personality of His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which was, this time, initiated by the state services of that country."
"Since 2018, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to grant autocephalous status to the Church of Ukraine, the Mother Church has avoided commenting on countless similar attacks that have come from church or political centers and figures in Russia. It does the same today," the statement reads.
The Patriarchate ultimately points out that "unusual scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information from all kinds of propagandists do not discourage the Ecumenical Patriarchate from continuing its service and ecumenical mission."
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