Bartholomew I.

Patriarch Bartholomew I.

With Pope Francis in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

Bartholomew I. ( Greek Βαρθολομαίος ), also Bartholomew I and Bartholomew I , whose real name is Dimitrios Archondonis , (*  29. February 1940 on Imbros in the village of Aghii Theodori , Çanakkale ) since 1991, Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Opel headquartered in Phanar in Istanbul . He is the 270th successor to the Apostle Andrew . The Patriarchal See of Constantinople is the first, and therefore its holder, Primus inter pares (“First among equals”) among the other heads of autocephalous Orthodox Churches around the world.

Life

Dimitrios Archondonis studied theology at the Chalki Seminary in Turkey , at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and in Munich . He was ordained a deacon in 1961 and a priest in 1969. Three years later he became head of the Patriarchate Chancellery in Istanbul. In 1973 he was ordained (titular) bishop of Philadelphia . In 1990 he became Metropolitan of Chalcedon and thus the highest-ranking member of the Holy Synod . On October 22, 1991, the 15 Metropolitans of the Holy Synod elected him Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch.

Patriarch Bartholomeos is considered a reform-oriented representative of the Orthodox churches . He is committed to ecumenism and dialogue between religions . He is fluent in Greek, Turkish, Italian, German, French, English and Latin. He is also strongly committed to environmental protection , so that he was sometimes referred to as "the Green Patriarch" in the press. In 2002 he was awarded the Sophie Prize for the Environment . He participated in the world prayer meeting of Assisi in the year of 2002.

A delegation from Bartholomeos I was on June 30, 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI. received at the Vatican on the occasion of the beginning of his pontificate in the Vatican. The return visit to Istanbul took place on November 30, 2006, the solemnity of the Apostle Andrew . At the end of this meeting, Benedict and Bartholomeos made a joint statement. At the interreligious peace meeting in Naples , Bartholomeos met Benedict again in October 2007 and, together with the Pope, opened the Pauline Year on June 28, 2008 in the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome , which both Catholics and Orthodox commemorate 2000th year of birth of the apostle was celebrated.

One of his concerns is the reopening of the theological college of Chalki (Turkish Heybeli Ada), which was closed in 1971 by the then Turkish government, which is necessary for the training of priests. Without this university, the continued existence of the patriarchate is at risk, since the patriarch must be a priest under church law, but also a Turkish citizen under Turkish law, and Turkey regularly withdraws citizenship from theologians studying abroad. A large number of petitions from the Patriarch to the Turkish government in Ankara have so far remained unanswered. “The Ecumenical Patriarchate is perhaps the only church in the world that has no way of training its priests,” says Bartholomeos. The Turkish government continues to deny the patriarchate any legal recognition. The Turkish Supreme Court in Ankara has forbidden the Patriarch to use the title “ecumenical”. According to the judgment, the patriarchate is fully subject to Turkish law and is not entitled to bear a universal title.

According to reports submitted to the International Society for Human Rights (IMG) by 2006, the right-wing Turkish organization Gray Wolves collected around 2.5 million signatures to expel the Patriarch of Constantinople. Bartholomeos confirmed that the situation of Christians in Turkey was turning "from bad to worse".

In the course of the trial against the members of the ultra-nationalist underground organization Ergenekon , it became known that they had planned, among other things, an assassination attempt on Patriarch Bartholomeos.

On March 19, 2013, Bartholomeos took part in the inauguration of Pope Francis . For the first time since the Oriental Schism of 1054, the head of the Orthodox Church traveled to a coronation or inauguration of the head of the Roman Catholic Church.

In April 2014, the Patriarch officially visited the Netherlands, where, in a personal conversation with King Willem-Alexander and Foreign Minister Timmermans, he expressed, among other things, his concern about violence in the Middle East. Invited by the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht Joris Vercammen to St. Gertrudis Cathedral , Bartholomeos I paid tribute there in his speech to the work of the joint Orthodox-Old Catholic Dialogue Commission so far. This was the return visit to the 2011 meeting of the two in Phanar. In Utrecht, the Ecumenical Patriarch also gave his lecture series “Faith and the Environment” on the protection of creation and questions of social justice. He also clearly denounced hunger in the world and the inadequate political measures to eliminate it. Finally, in view of the escalation in the Middle East conflict, Bartholomeos renewed his call to initiate a reconciliation process.

At the end of November 2014, Pope Francis held detailed discussions with Bartholomeos I during a visit to Turkey. In his encyclical Laudato si ' , Pope Francis expressly cites the Patriarch as an example of an ecumenical dialogue on the preservation of creation.

Investigations by the Turkish Public Prosecutor's Office

The Turkish public prosecutor's office is investigating suspected violations of Article 219 of the Turkish Criminal Code , which punishes abuse of religious office with up to one year in prison. In August 2007, Bartholomeos was served a summons to the Palace of Justice in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district for holding on to his traditional title despite a court ruling. The Turkish authorities see the Patriarch of Constantinople as the head of the Greek Orthodox Christians in the country. Turkish nationalists suspect that the patriarchate is to be declared a kind of Orthodox Vatican state within Turkey.

Conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church

Around 70 percent of Ukrainians profess Orthodox Christianity. So far, the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the more than a dozen Orthodox national churches officially only recognized the Russian Orthodox Church, which has the largest number of parishes in Ukraine.

Since 2014, the development of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine has been heading towards a separation from the Moscow Patriarchate, or autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. As part of the preparations for the granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch has appointed Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon (United States) and Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton (Canada) as exarchs in Kiev. As a result, the Patriarchate of Moscow froze relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople in September 2018. From now on, Bartholomew I will no longer be named in the first place at the intercessions in the services of the Moscow Patriarchate, but the Patriarch of Alexandria .

Awards

• 1999 Grand Cross of the Star of Romania
• 2002 Sophie Prize for Environment
• In 2004 the then Federal President Thomas Klestil awarded him the Great Gold Medal of Honor on Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria .
• 2005 Champions of Earth Award from the United Nations Environment Program
• On March 13, 2007, the third anniversary of the death of Franz Cardinal König , the “Communio et Progressio” foundation awarded him the “ Cardinal König Prize ” in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna .
• 2012 Four Freedoms Award in the "Religious Freedom" category

Patriarch Bartholomeos I holds honorary doctorates from more than 25 universities in Europe, Russia and the USA, a. a. from Yale University , Moscow Lomonosov University , Edinburgh University and the Catholic University of Lublin "John Paul II" (2010). On May 16, 2014, the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Munich honored him as the first Orthodox theologian ever with an honorary doctorate. The Evangelical Theological Faculty of the University of Tübingen awarded him an honorary doctorate on May 30, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Patriarch Bartholomeos I  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Bartholomäus I in the catalog of the German National Library
• Articles on orthodoxwiki (Engl.)
• Greetings from John Paul II to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomeos I.
• Bartholomew I: We are second class citizens

swell

1. ^ Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Vatican City. In: vatican.va , June 30, 2005
2. ^ Text of the joint declaration. In: vatican.va
3. ↑ We are second class citizens. In: Kath.net , November 17, 2006
4. ^ EU: Bartholomew before the Council of Europe. ( Memento of March 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Vatican Radio , January 22, 2007
5. ↑ Turkey: Bartholomew is not allowed to call himself “ecumenical”. ( Memento of October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Vatican Radio , June 29, 2007
6. ↑ International Society for Human Rights : Turkey: First drive out Christians, then into the EU? ( Memento of November 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) 2006
7. ^ Rainer Hermann: Trial of "Ergenekon" conspirators begins , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 20, 2008
8. ↑ Tryst on St. Peter's Square in Rome - Who pays homage to Pope Francis. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. March 20, 2013, accessed March 20, 2013 . 
9. ↑ Pope receives church and religious representatives. In: Vatican Radio. March 20, 2013, accessed March 20, 2013 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Ecumenical Patriarch visits the Netherlands homepage of Pro Oriente, accessed on July 20, 2014
11. ^ Speech by the Ecumenical Patriarch in the Old Catholic Cathedral of Utrecht. In: Website of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (English) ( Memento of July 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
12. ^ Orthodox Old Catholic Working Group is received by Ecumenical Patriarchs. In: utrechte-union.org , accessed April 27, 2014
13. ↑ Building bridges in Ankara. In: sueddeutsche.de , November 28, 2014
14. ↑ Encyclical Laudato si 'of May 24, 2015, No. 8.
15. ↑ Turkey: Patriarch summoned for interrogation. ( Memento of October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Vatican Radio , August 24, 2007
16. ↑ Constantinople: Nothing New in the East - Vatican News . September 1, 2018 ( vaticannews.va [accessed September 23, 2018]).
17. ↑ Russia: "No Complete Break with Constantinople" - Vatican News . September 16, 2018 ( vaticannews.va [accessed September 23, 2018]).
18. ↑ Ecumenical Patriarch Designates Two Exarchs for Ukraine - Vatican News . September 9, 2018 ( vaticannews.va [accessed September 23, 2018]).
19. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.6 MB)
20. ↑ Honorary doctorates and awards
21. ^ Catholic News Agency , February 7, 2017.

predecessor	Office	successor
Demetrios I.	Patriarch of Constantinople since 1991	---