Ex-Head of the Presidential Office: In 2008, Bartholomew Shouted at Yushchenko: "Stay Out of Church Affairs"
President Yushchenko derailed negotiations with the Ecumenical Patriarch because of Filaret.
Former head of the Presidential Secretariat Viktor Baloha revealed details of the breakdown of negotiations with Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew in an interview with "RBC-Ukraine."
The politician personally conducted negotiations in Istanbul with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the leaders of the UOC-KP and the UAOC for six months. The document stipulated that UOC-KP leader Filaret Denysenko would receive the position of deputy in the new structure.
Viktor Yushchenko completely derailed the negotiation process during a final private meeting in an office on Bankova Street. The Ecumenical Patriarch confirmed his readiness to grant autocephaly within a few months, but the president put forward a new demand.
The head of state demanded that Filaret Denysenko be made the primate of the united church. To which Patriarch Bartholomew, according to Baloha, stood up, struck the table with his staff, and switched to Russian: "Yushchenko, attend to your own duties. Spirituality is my cathedra. You stay out of it!"
The ex-head of the Presidential Office stated that Patriarch Bartholomew left Kyiv in tears, declaring that the greatest mistake in the history of Ukraine had just occurred. "Today we have lost the chance, due to incomprehensible ambitions, to create a patriarchate in Ukraine. Great troubles await you. Wars await you," Baloha quoted the Patriarch as saying.
As the UOJ reported, Denysenko admitted that he personally conducted secret negotiations at the Phanar, even though Constantinople officially considered him anathematized. According to Filaret, at that time the Phanar was offering not autocephaly, but the entry of the UOC-KP into the Constantinople Patriarchate.
