Boy, this is an odd case. How did I miss it when it happened last year?
Observers of the ecumenical scene will recall that there are currently three substantial Orthodox bodies competing for legitimacy in Ukraine.
Last year, one bishop of the Kyivan patrarchate apparently decided to advance ecumenical relationships in his own way: by getting involved in another church's fringe groups. He paid a visit to a schismatic traditionalist Catholic sect in the US, went through some sort of ceremony, and signed some sort of document; and they announced that he had "abjured his errors" and entered into full communion with them -- in effect, become a sedevacantist Catholic. I don't know about you, but to me that doesn't necessarily look like a move upward.
A few weeks later, Bishop Yurii was back at home denying that he had had any intention of doing what he appeared to have done, and agreeing to the appointment of another bishop to watch over his eparchy.
The links above show all the information I have about this case, so it's hard to tell what was really going on, but I'm guessing that there was some medical explanation for all this.
