"...threw off the office of the Patriarch...."

Although the Orthodox still regard the Bishop of Rome as the "Patriarch of the West," Benedict dropped the title to make the Bishop of Rome (his office) more accessible to the Reformation Churches of the West, especially Lutheran and Anglican. I think Benedict was more ecumenically practical, too, realizing that being (in the words of Orthodox Bishop Timothy Ware) "first among equals" and an "elder brother," meant nothing to the Orthodox then and would get Catholics nowhere, especially since Orthodox still regard Catholics as "intruders" in their "canonical territories." (After all, "Orthodox were there first.") The Russian Orthodox just haven't evolved. (Orthodox thinking is somewhat similar to thinking of some Muslims who want to re-establish a Caliphate in parts of their "canonical" Europe, especially southern Spain, appropriate churches there (former mosques), and replace current occupants -- "intruders" - with Muslims.)