By Kostas Onisenko
In an interview, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, referred to the possibility that the Ecumenical Patriarchate will recognize the autocephaly of the Church of Northern Macedonia.
Metropolitan Hilarion used this occasion to once again attack the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the Ukrainian autocephaly issue at the forefront. In particular, he stated:
“I would like to make no predictions about the future movements of Patriarch Bartholomew, but we see where the legalization of the schism in Ukraine has led. He promised all in Ukraine, both the country’s authorities and the religious ministers, that there would be a cure for the schism, that all the Orthodox would unite.
But from the very beginning, it was understood that this union could not take place on such a basis he proposed.
We see what happened in Ukraine. We see what Poroshenko’s political fate was. We see that far from being cured, the schism has even been aggravated. And I hope that what happened in Ukraine will not happen in Northern Macedonia.”