Metropolitan of Krini and Exarch of Malta Kyrillos (Katerelos) as a supporter of the theory of the primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople

The article analyzes the views of the Greek canonist Metropolitan of Krini and Exarch of Malta Kyrillos (Katerelos) in support of the theory of primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople from the point of view of Orthodox Church law. The Metropolitan’s opinion on this controversial issue was expressed regarding the so-called Ukrainian autocephaly. Bishop Kyrillos, being an expert in Byzantine Church law, first defended the theory of primacy in 2014 with a kind of apology for the ecclesiology set out in the Ravenna document of 2007. After the Ukrainian issue was brought to the fore in 2018-2019, he began to actively promote theses in defense of the special ecclesiastical authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople in the Orthodox world. Metropolitan Kyrillos, unlike all other supporters of the theory of primacy, uses rhetorical devices, influencing the emotions of the reader and at the same time not relying on facts in defense of his theses. The main message of the metropolitan is that the Roman and Constantinople cathedras initially received an indisputably high status in the Christian world. From his point of view, Constantinople as the “new Rome” was equal to Rome, which had historical primacy in the earliest era both in secular and ecclesiastical terms. Based on this concept, after the apostasy of the Roman Church, the Patriarchate of Constantinople allegedly inherited primacy among the other Churches with all the ensuing theses of modern supporters of the theory of the same name. As a result of the study, the author of the article proves that the straightforward scheme of Metropolitan Kyrillos is erroneous, since both canon law and historical facts in general support the validity of the principles of conciliar ecclesiology, according to which all Local Churches have fundamentally equal power within their jurisdiction and differ from each other by an honorable place in the diptychs, but not by primacy of power.