Petru Paduraru, the Metropolitan Bishop of the Church of Bessarabia, is accused of “social and patriotic inactivity”, in addition to being a “thief and sodomite”. The allegations were voiced by the founding group of the Church of Eastern Moldova, which was recently registered with the Ministry of Justice.

The group's representatives have asked Romania's Patriarch Daniel to accept the newly formed congregation under the Romanian Church's hierarchy and bless their spiritual leader, whose name they aren't ready to reveal yet “for security reasons”.

Speaking at a news conference today, Veaceslav Afanasiev, one of the founding group's members, said the new church is being created as a response to the “catastrophic situation” in the Church of Bessarabia, about which the group has been complaining for several years now.

In April 2012, a group of clerics and adherents of the Church of Bessarabia assembled in a meeting to inform the Patriarchy of what was going on in the Metropolitan Church. As the Patriarchy failed to react, it was decided to create a new metropolitan church in order “to save the parishes leaving the Church of Bessarabia from joining the Russian Church”, said Veaceslav Afanasiev.

Ilie Popa, another representative, accused Metropolitan Petru of accepting into his entourage a host of people of “suspicious reputation”, priests defrocked by the Church of Moldova for having gay sex. As Ilie Popa stated, “most priests in the Church of Bessarabia are desperate because of the Metropolitan's aggressive behavior, and those who try to confront him are persecuted”. He went on to accuse the Church of Bessarabia that it has acted over the years as a subversive political force controlled by Moscow.

The newly formed metropolitan church isn't canonically subordinated to any patriarchy yet, but its representatives are convinced that if it's accepted under the Romanian Church, no less than 70% of the Church of Bessarabia's parishes will join the Church of Eastern Moldova instead.