The newly elected Orthodox bishop of Plovdiv, Nikolay of Znepol known as a favourite of the Bulgarian patriarch Maxim as well as the youngest bishop in Bulgaria caused a minor scandal with its statement on Bulgarian TV that the Pope as well as all catholics are heretics.
The bishop, born in 1969 and elected with the overwhelming support of 12 out of the 14 members of the Holy Orthodox Synod who took part in the vote, managed to quickly infuriate with his statements the Bulgarian catholic community mostly centered around the region of Plovdiv and numbering roughly at around 100 000 people. Nikolay of Znepol, who took control of the largest diocese of the Bulgarian orthodox church stated in an interview for the largest private channel in Bulgaria BTV, that anyone who does not follow the cannons of the Orthodox church is a heretic, seriously undermining the latest efforts of the Catholic Church and The Pope to seek recounciliation with the Orthodox church.