Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Meets Trump During U.S. Visit, Discusses Ukraine

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of some 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, was scheduled to speak and receive an honorary degree at the University of Notre Dame on a Thursday evening during a 12-day U.S. visit in 2021, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune. Notre Dame officials framed the visit as a step toward potential reconciliation between the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches, which split during the Great Schism of 1054.

That Thursday morning, Bartholomew was to preside over a service at St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church in South Bend, which was at maximum capacity. The report said Bartholomew, 81, arrived in Washington, D.C., on a Saturday and was hospitalized overnight on Sunday after feeling unwell from long travel from Turkey. He recovered the next day.

On Monday, the Tribune reported, Bartholomew met with President Joe Biden to discuss climate change, COVID-19 and religious freedom. The visit also included meetings with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Bartholomew has served for 30 years as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Livestream links for events during the trip were available at www.goarch.org/EPvisit2021.

A second report, from Sight Magazine, describes a different visit. It says Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, began a nearly two-week apostolic visit to the United States, his first trip in four years. The visit was to include meetings with Greek Orthodox Americans, the State Department, Vice President JD Vance and congressional leaders. Bartholomew was also to receive an award for his environmental activism. The two reports differ in their details and timing, and the Sight Magazine account does not give dates for its visit.

According to Sight Magazine, Bartholomew met with President Donald Trump for an hourlong meeting that covered the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Orthodox-Catholic relations and the status of Turkey’s Christian minority. Bartholomew acknowledged Trump’s efforts to broker a truce in the Russia-Ukraine war, pursuing peace where it can be pursued (Romans 12:18).

The report also recalled that in 2018 Bartholomew granted autocephaly to the Ukrainian church, which sparked a schism with the Moscow Patriarchate. In an interview with a French television station, Bartholomew said the Ecumenical Patriarchate does not intend to revoke its autocephaly decision for Ukraine.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate, based in Istanbul, oversees the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, which has about 1.5 million U.S. members.