By Alexander Tanas
CHISINAU (Reuters) – Moldova’s authorities, a fierce critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, appealed to the nation’s clergy on Sunday to “inform the reality” concerning the struggle, saying that Moscow’s army actions had destroyed some 500 locations of worship.
Authorities spokesperson Daniel Voda’s enchantment, on the eve of the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, appeared linked to a cut up in Moldova’s Orthodox Church into competing branches subordinate to Russia and Romania.
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Greater than 90 p.c of churchgoers in Moldova, which lies between Ukraine and Romania, adhere to the Orthodox Church.
The invasion, backed enthusiastically by Russia’s Orthodox Church, has accelerated a transfer by parishes from Moldova’s majority Moscow-linked Moldova Metropolis to the smaller Romania-linked church, the Metropolis of Bessarabia.
For the reason that invasion, nonetheless dubbed a “Particular Navy Operation” in Russia, greater than 60 parishes have transferred their allegiance within the nation of two.5 million.
“From the start of the invasion, greater than 500 church buildings, synagogues and mosques have been destroyed or broken. That is one each two days,” Voda stated in his enchantment.
“Don’t stay silent. Inform the world the reality. The aggression isn’t just a struggle for territory, it’s the destruction of shrines.”
Metropolitan Vladimir of the Moscow-linked Moldova Metropolis has made some extent of claiming his church denounced the invasion “from the very first day” and organised help for greater than 90,000 Ukrainian refugees, the best quantity per capita in Europe.
“At each service I say a particular prayer wherein I ask for mercy for the church and pray for an finish to the struggle in Ukraine,” Vladimir stated in a 2023 interview.
“I’m not afraid to name it the ‘struggle in Ukraine’ within the prayer. I don’t pray for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”
Media studies have spoken of monks from the Russia-linked church backing the Russian invasion in some parishes. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm these studies. And the church acknowledges that teams of monks final yr made “pilgrimages” to holy websites in Russia, with Russian financing.
The cut up in church ranks displays Moldova’s turbulent historical past, with most of its present territory having belonged at numerous instances previously to the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union and “Better Romania.”
The Romania-linked Metropolis of Bessarabia is more and more linked to Moldova’s drive to affix the European Union by 2030.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas, writing by Ron Popeski; enhancing by Diane Craft)
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