A Romanian agent almost stole a temple of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Odessa region
In the village of Priozernoye, Odessa region, the defrocked former priest of the UOC-MP Mikhail Stegarescu is threatening to take away an Orthodox church with a 300-year history from the community and transfer it to the Bessarabian Metropolis of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The cleric of the Odessa diocese of the UOC Andrey Palchuk said this on air on the First Cossack TV channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Palchuk, the former priest, for 18 years, while he headed the Orthodox community in Priozernoye, conducted undercover work, placating the local population with gifts and trips to Romania.
“This former priest, Mihail Stegarescu, says that we will take this temple and go to the Romanian Metropolis of Bessarabia. The people in the village were indignant, a huge part said that they would stay with Bishop Agafangel, the Metropolitan came to the parish, performed a service, the work was done, the Bishop explained and the people supported that he remained in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
But it’s interesting that over the years this Mihail Stegarescu has been doing such interesting work, one might even say, undercover work – children in school and kindergartens have received a lot of support: gifts, trips to Romania, to the sea, to the mountains. Where does the money come from, where does it come from in the poorest depressed villages, where there are no roads, enterprises, where there is nothing, to support people very much? Considering that we know that in Ukraine and Bukovina, passports are being distributed, neighboring states are issuing passports, this work was also carried out, people told us.
Now Mihail Stegarescu became a deputy after the elections and is carrying out such work in neighboring villages - he is slowly recruiting young people. At the same time, people speak badly of him. He served for 18 years, but at the same time, ancient icons and bells, in which a large percentage was silver and copper, disappeared, he took documents with him, took archives, and led a not very moral lifestyle in the parish...
Quiet work is being carried out and, perhaps, we assume that behind this there is some encroachment on the integrity of our country. Considering that in our country there is now a political, financial crisis, a crisis associated with the coronavirus, the people in those places do not experience the support of the state and this is exactly the situation that is happening,” Palchuk said.
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