Moldova launched ‘malicious attack’ on Orthodox Church – Moscow

Chisinau has disrespected the Moldovan people by preventing a bishop from traveling to Jerusalem, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said

The authorities in Moldova have launched a deliberate attack on the canonical Orthodox Church by barring a bishop from attending an Easter ceremony in Jerusalem, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.

Bishop Marchel of the Moldovan Orthodox Church was scheduled to fly to Israel on Thursday to attend the Holy Fire ritual on April 19 and bring back part of the flame believed to descend miraculously at the site of Christ’s crucifixion. He told the media that border police at Chisinau airport searched him and returned his passport only after his plane had departed, despite finding nothing suspicious. His second attempt to board a flight was also “unjustifiably” blocked by Moldovan authorities.

Moscow views “this deliberate step… as another manifestation of the course taken by the Moldovan government against their people, their policy of double standards,” Gennady Askaldovich, special representative of the Russian foreign minister for freedom of religion, told TASS on Saturday. “There is no doubt that this is a malicious attack against the canonical Orthodox Church of Moldova,” he stressed.

The official called on international bodies to “take note of what happened and give a principled assessment of the outrageous actions of the Moldovan authorities.”

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In recent years, Moldova has faced religious tensions involving two major Orthodox factions: the Moldovan Orthodox Church – affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate – and the Metropolis of Bessarabia – under the Romanian Orthodox Church – which is being backed by the pro-EU government in Chisinau.

Askaldovich stressed that “a representative of the Metropolis of Bessarabia was the one, who eventually went to collect the Holy Fire,” despite the fact that 70% of worshipers in the former Soviet republic belong to the Moldovan Orthodox Church.

The treatment of Bishop Marchel was “an attempt to destroy the unity of the Orthodox world on Moldovan soil,” he said. “For the Moldovan people, their faith is the basis of their moral guidelines, traditional values and cultural code. It is regrettable that the government in Chisinau shows disrespect for its own citizens by irresponsibly manipulating such sensitive issues,” the representative stressed.