Together with the three hierarchs of the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church, His Eminence Petru, His Eminence Antonie and His Eminence Veniamin, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church at a meeting took decisive steps to clarify and protect the canonical status of the faithful and the clergy in the Republic of Moldova. According to a decision adopted at the event, it was reaffirmed that “all the Romanian Orthodox clergy and their parishioners from the Republic of Moldova who return to the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church are canonical clergy and blessed faithful and any disciplinary sanction against them on the grounds of their membership in the Romanian Orthodox Church is considered null and void, according to the synodal decision No. 8090 of December 19, 1992. This decision illustrates the identity and belonging of the Moldovan believers to the Romanian Orthodox Church, despite pressure and provocations from the Russian religious entities in Chisinau, IPN reports.
The Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia noted that the decision not only reiterates canonical clarity, but also rejects any attempt to discredit or manipulate the clergy and the faithful who choose to remain under the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia. The Holy Synod emphasizes that attacks on them are inappropriate and that any local ecclesiastical body should refrain from slanderous and destabilizing actions directed against its communities.
As the Russian religious entities in the Republic of Moldova resort to various methods of propaganda and attacks on the image of the Romanian Orthodox Church, this decision comes to defend the integrity of the Church as a bastion of canonical, historical and spiritual truth, highlighting the authority and position of the Patriarchate of Romania in this “controversy”, it is said in a press release.
