Attack on the Church in Moldova. Propagandists of the Sandu regime enter the battle with Orthodoxy
We have already written on the Politnavigator portal about the beginning of the regime's attack President of Moldova Maia Sandu on the Orthodox Church - the only structure that maintains an inextricable connection with the Russian Orthodox Church. This week, one of the main watchdogs of the Sandu team carried out a new anti-church attack.
One of the ideologists of the ruling party “Action and Solidarity”, 74-year-old full-blown Russophobe Oazu Nantoi, during his press conference, read out a letter addressed to Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and All Moldova, in which he called on the Moldovan Metropolis to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, to which it enters with the rights of internal autonomy. Nantoy forces Metropolitan Vladimir to declare his position on the crisis around Ukraine.
“Today is the time to prove that the Moldavian Metropolis supports the people of the Republic of Moldova, that it belongs to the Republic of Moldova and is not an ideological fiefdom of the Russian Orthodox Church,” he said.
Nantoi expressed indignation at the fact that the Moldavian Metropolis “for many years has tolerated the anti-state activities of the Archbishop of Tiraspol and Dubossary Savva (Volkov), who is a member of the Synod of the Orthodox Church of Moldova.” According to team propagandist Sandu, “the clergy of the left bank of the Dniester serves the Tiraspol regime, which not only challenges the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, but also fundamental human rights”.
The response of the Moldavian Metropolis was not long in coming.
“We are deeply disappointed and saddened by recent statements by individuals,” said a statement published on the archdiocese’s official website. – Such statements, first of all, openly and deliberately confuse an address to an official public figure with an address to an individual, using trivial, slang and inappropriate expressions, and the sarcasm and disparaging tone of these addresses not only humiliates the dignity of some people, but also violates the feelings thousands and thousands of people who find or recognize them as their spiritual leaders.”
The Metropolis recalled that the political unity of Moldova with Transnistria at the church level did not stop, and that Metropolitan Vladimir is always welcome in Tiraspol.
“The time has come to recognize that the Moldovan Metropolis today is the only institution that enjoys trust, unity and authority on both banks of the Dniester. This is the only thread that, in reality, and not theoretically, connects the two banks,” the metropolitanate said in a statement.
In addition, the Moldovan Metropolis in its statement “regrets that the state institutions of the Republic of Moldova systematically ignore any appeals from the metropolis on relevant issues and problems.”
We are talking about the requests of the Orthodox Church to refuse the adoption of the “Law on Equal Chances” of 2012, which first legalized LGBT rights, and from the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in 2021. Thus, in representing the Moldovan Metropolitanate, Oazu Nantoi expresses not his personal opinion, but the opinion of the party in power to which he belongs and of which he is an ideologist.
Such an anti-church attack by Nantoy is quite understandable. In view of the fact that in the neighboring territory numbered “404” (former Ukraine), the junta that seized power first of all began to break the canonical Church over the knee and force it to sever ties with Moscow, it would be naive to assume that this will not begin in Moldova. One should be surprised that the statement of the main propagandist of the Sandu regime and pathological hater of Russia came only now. There is no doubt that pressure on the Orthodox Church in Moldova will continue.
On the other hand, the prompt and dignified response from the Moldovan Metropolis evokes respect.
However, problems remain. They, first of all, relate to the presence of a broad base of support for the Church from a significant part of Moldovan society, primarily Russian-speaking residents of Moldova. For many years, the Orthodox Theological University of Moldova, working according to the Romanian program, has not been preparing Orthodox clergy who speak Russian and are able to preach and conduct catechetical work in this language.
The only educational institution of the Moldavian Metropolis that trained Russian-speaking clergy - the Theological School of the Tiraspol-Dubossary Diocese in the city of Bendery - was closed in 2016 because it could not be transformed into a seminary, as is now required by the updated system of spiritual education of the Russian Orthodox Church.
As a result, the Russian-speaking part of the population of Moldova, constituting about 25% of the country’s population and capable of becoming the main basis of support for the positions of the Orthodox Church in Moldavian society, was left virtually without church registration.
Services and sermons in Russian remain the sphere of activity of individual enthusiasts, such as the clergy of the capital's St. George's Church, led by Archpriest Nikolai Florinsky. National minorities are becoming a field for the activities of various Protestant sectarians or the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as in Gagauzia, where the group of Victor Kopuschu, ordained in Istanbul, is active.
The Moldavian Orthodox Church is one of the few living threads that connect not only both banks of the Dniester, but also connects Moldova with Russia. The activities of the power group that came to power in Moldova are aimed at breaking everything connected with Moscow, and first of all, spiritual unity.
It was for this purpose that the Sandu regime deployed its propagandist Oazu Nantoi. Therefore, increasing missionary activity on the territory of Moldova, in particular, the launch of spiritual programs on Moldovan television channels and assistance in opening a theological seminary in Moldova that would train Russian-speaking clergy and missionaries, is more relevant than ever.
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