Originally posted by UMDiaspora.org
View Post
I also wondered how was your Istanbul patriarchy visit. I saw posts in this forum about patriarchy`s policy towards Macedonian Ohrid church and i think they don't recognize it, right? Did you guys entered a conversation about this issue or it was just a goodwill meeting?
P.S: Btw, Turkey doesn't officially recognize their ecumenical status because of Greek policy towards their minorities. Istanbul patriarchy was in ecumenical status at Ottoman era but after the republic, we don't recognize this anymore. According to our official policy, Istanbul patriarchy doesn't have any superiority over Bulgarian, Russian or Macedonian church. Currently this issue is tied up to the minority issue in Greece. We declared that unless Greece treats her minorities properly by giving their democratic rights, we wont recognize Istanbul patriarchy as an ecumenical.
In short, we don't wanna give them a status like Pope in Vatican because of equality issue. For example, Greek citizen Turks(Greek muslims according to them) cant even select their own religious leaders. Greek governments appoints whoever they want and Greek citizen Turks doesn't recognize them as their religious leader but Greek governments never allowed them to select their own clerics even once either. So, it`s a dead end. On the other hand, Istanbul patriarchy elects whoever they want(only among Turkey citizens) cuz no one interferes to them but Mr. Bartholomeo claims that he feels like he is being "crucified" by the Turks cuz we don't let him transfer Greek citizen clerics directly from Athens to Istanbul!!!
If Mr. Bartholomeo feels like he is being crucified then the minorities in Greece should feel like impaled for a century.
Comment