Împietrirea canonică a inimilor: criza ucraineană a Ortodoxiei
Canonical hardness of hearts: The Ukrainian Crisis of Orthodoxy

Summary/Abstract: The author claims that the current ecclesiastical crisis in Ukraine is due to an ecclesiological derivation initiated in the nineteenth century, namely the principle of autocephaly granted on political national criteria. These autocephalies were politically torn down by the ecumenical Patriarchate without a genuine ecclesiological debate. The geopolitical circumstances of the twentieth century frozen de facto any discussion, and the attempt to break the deadlock through a Pan-Orthodox synod was sabotaged by the largest church among the autocephalous Orthodox Churches, later involving three others. Its intervention in the 30 years old schisms within the Orthodox communities of Ukraine, with a minimal consultation and against Moscow Patriarchate’s point of view, marked a turning point in the post-imperial status quo of Orthodoxy. The conclusion is that a healing of the schism declared by the Moscow Patriarchate cannot be operated on the phyletic ecclesiological basis of the twentieth century, and that a universal ecumenical redefinition of Orthodoxy is required, starting from the ecclesiological formulas of the pre-modern centuries and coming towards unpredictable social transformations worldwide. The author evokes the possibility of exceeding the ecclesiology of the national autocephalous churches.

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