Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Meets With President of Lithuanian Parliament,Speaks at Seminar

On the second day of his official visit to Lithuania,His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met with the President of the Lithuanian Parliament,which is called the Seimas,Ms.Viktorija Cmylite-Nielson.Ms.Cmylite-Nielson thanked the Patriarch for the restoration of historical justice and the reinstatement of the five priests deposed by the Moscow Patriarchate.She went on to say that: From the thirteenth century until 1686,the Orthodox living in the territory of Lithuania considered Constantinople as the Mother Church from which Orthodoxy came to our country.It was part of the Metropolis of Kyiv and the Ecumenical Patrarchate.And only later passed to the Patriarchate of Moscow. The Lithuanian capital,Vilnius,had always been a city of religious freedom and tolerance,with those of Roman Catholic,Orthodox,Lutheran,Jewish,Uniate and Muslim faiths living together.In Vilnius,the word of God was spread with love,not with the swords.It is therefore absolutely unacceptable for us,the inhabitants of the city and the descendants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,when God covers the imperialist aspirations of the Kremlin regime.I told His All-Holiness that in this light we see the situation of Orthodox Christians in Lithuania.* Patriarch Bartholomew also addressed a seminar in Vilnius sponsored by the EPP Group,a coalition of center-right parties in the European Parliament.He emphasized the central role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Orthodox Church,contrasting it with the ethnocentrist tendency of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Kremlin in their "Russian World" philosophy,which is inherently chauvinistic,resulting in conflict within the Orthodox world and,ultimately,Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine.