About 9,500 signatories of an online petition ask that the Moldovan Metropolitan Church should be taxed. According to the members of an initiative group that launched the petition last week, the religious organizations are exempted from paying taxes on a number of conditions. One of the conditions is that they must not support political parties or candidates. In a news conference at IPN, a number of petitioners said the Moldovan Metropolitan Church, showing preference for a particular candidate for President by statements of clerics, caused division and hatred among the Orthodox Christians of Moldova.
Lawyer Doina Ioana Straisteanu said the petitioners ask to tax the churches, monasteries and religious shops for all the provided services and sold things. They request to tax only the Moldovan Metropolitan Church because this is the only one that showed its political preferences in a number of election campaigns. “When the Metropolitan Church becomes involved in politics, this should not be exempted from paying taxes,” stated the jurist.
The petition says the State Tax Inspectorate should check if the Moldovan Metropolitan Church meets the legal criteria for being exempted from taxes. The Labor Inspectorate is asked to see why those who work for churches and monasteries – from choir singers to guards – do not have work contracts and health insurance policies. The Prosecutor General’s Office is requested to verify if the steps taken to recruit persons with disabilities and orphans for begging for churches do not contain elements of trafficking in persons.
Civic activist Rodion Gavriloi, a graduate of the Orthodox Theological Seminary of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, said press reports revealed the luxury in which the leaders of the Moldovan Metropolitan Church live. This means that they broke the own oath to lead a poor life. Metropolitan Bishop Vladimir and Bishop Marchel, who earlier announced their support for the Socialist candidate for President Igor Dodon, live rather as veritable businessmen. The two obey the Patriarchate of Moscow and thus have to support a pro-Russian candidate, while their statements about the candidate of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu were aimed at denigrating her before parishioners.
Civic activist Ion Andronache, who studies at the Chisinau Academy of Orthodox Theology that is controlled by the Moldovan Metropolitan Church, said the clerics who expressed in public their political preferences do not represent the whole Church. “Not only the clerics form part of the Church. We, the parishioners, also represent the Church and the statements of several clerics do not refer to all parishioners. From their statements, we can deduce that they excluded from the Church the parishioners who prefer another candidate. I, as an Orthodox Christian, am for the taxing of churches. The Church became a more pompous form of the Civil Status Office where the priest dictates the prices,” stated the activist.
Petru Negura, sociologist and professor of the Teacher Training University “Ion Creanga”, said the petition signed by thousands of people does not represent an act of revenge on the Church. It is a call to the state institutions to bring things in order, especially because the Church behaves like a business entity and an undeclared political player. The teacher called on the clerics to remember the vocation of the Church and work with the people, not campaign politically.
The jurists are to formulate official applications that will be soon submitted to the competent institutions.
