According to the Ukrainian scenario: hundreds of churches will be taken away from the canonical Moldavian Metropolis
The Bessarabian Metropolitanate, a non-canonical structure created by the Romanian Patriarchate on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, is challenging hundreds of church buildings used by the canonical Moldovan Metropolitanate in court , reports the pro-government television channel TV8.
More than 800 churches that belonged to the state in 2003 were transferred to the use of the Moldovan Metropolitanate according to an agreement signed by Metropolitan Vladimir and the then Ministry of Culture of Moldova under the rule of communist President Vladimir Voronin. Through a document signed by both parties, the Moldovan Archdiocese undertakes to preserve and protect these structures, as well as to create legal files for each individual parish.
The Bessarabian Metropolitanate, part of the Romanian Patriarchate, which considers itself the heir to the church structure that existed during the Romanian occupation of 1918-1940 and 1941-1944, is challenging this agreement in court, insisting that a significant portion of these churches rightfully belong to it. In a month, the Supreme Court will make its final decision.
The Romanian Church first challenged this agreement in 2010, after the Communist Party, led by Voronin, was removed from power. For a long time, the court did not side with the plaintiffs. However, in recent years, the Moldovan Ministry of Culture, led by the new minister, Sergiu Prodan, has joined the lawsuit.
The Bessarabian Metropolitanate hopes that the decision will ultimately be in its favor. By challenging the 2003 agreement, it is seeking to have the fate of church buildings decided by nationalist-minded parish communities, as in Ukraine.
“The Metropolis of Bessarabia owned more than 60 buildings in the municipality of Chisinau, some of which were demolished. Some of them have survived to this day, a few have been restored, the vast majority are in ruins. There is no law on restitution in the Republic of Moldova, so our efforts are unsuccessful.
We are waiting for an act of goodwill from the government to make these church buildings available for use by the Metropolitan of Bessarabia and to give us the opportunity to invest in them, because we are not just going to use them, we want to restore them to their original form. The Bessarabia Metropolis is a victim of Soviet power and has every right to be recognized as such,” said the diocesan secretary of the Bessarabia Metropolis, Constantin Olariu.
Many Moldovan parishes have already transferred to the Bessarabian Metropolitanate. According to Metropolitan Vladimir, this is due to the financial difficulties they were experiencing.
“I think this is due to the fact that many parishes did not have financial resources, including for church repairs. In Romania, all churches are maintained by the Ministry of Culture, the Romanian government, and when a priest wants to make repairs in a church, he turns to the government and receives consent.
And moreover, they receive a salary, in Moldova we do not have the necessary resources to repair churches, so we always call on our Christians to help us, and that is why we are criticized for higher prices for baptisms and weddings, but we also maintain buildings with this money , which belong not to us, but to the state. From there we pay the necessary salaries and utilities,” the Metropolitan said.
Thus, the ecclesiastical situation in Moldova is increasingly sliding toward the Ukrainian scenario . Meanwhile, the clergy of the Moldovan Metropolitanate are increasingly reminiscent of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church before its defeat. This even applies to the pro-Russian wing of Moldovan priests.
Thus, Archpriest Vitaly Shincar, who was considered as an unofficial speaker of the pro-Russian wing of the Moldavian Metropolis, speaking during the TV show “On the Facts” on the Exclusiv TV channel, said that Metropolitan Vladimir with his letter put Patriarch Kirill “in his place,” pointing out the independence of the church structure in Moldova.
“The patriarch forgets that we are independent. The moment has come when it is worth bucking. And Metropolitan Vladimir slightly pulled his sovereign back. The Patriarch for us is just a sovereign, under whose sign we live,” said Father Vitaly.
We risk assuming that bending over backwards to the Russophobic Sandu regime will ultimately lead to the same result as the Feofanievskoye renunciation of the UOC from the Moscow Patriarchate.
English version :: Read in English According to the Ukrainian scenario: hundreds of churches will be taken away from the canonical Moldovan Metropolis