An initiative group of Orthodox Christians, supported by members of the Association “Pro-Ortodoxia”, condemn the mass media attacks on the Metropolitan Bishop of Chisinau and All Moldova Vladimir. In a news conference at IPN, priest Ghenadie Valuta said the attacks were launched immediately after the September 3 meeting of the Synod of the Orthodox Church, where a statement to deny the laws that undermine the Christian values and to condemn political interference in the moral-religious life was adopted.
The priest stated that the press reports about the Metropolitan Bishop’s property and his vacation on the seaside in the company of a woman were taken out of context and presented tendentiously and non-objectively. “That picture clearly shows that there is a group of people there. There was no intimacy there, especially with a relative,” said Ghenadie Valuta. As regards the property of His Holiness Vladimir, he said the Church is a religious state inside the state and it’s normal for its head to have an appropriate residence. The priest added that the Metropolitan Bishop’s car is new and was donated to him by a politician of the ruling alliance, as it is well known.
“These attacks, planned by homo-European, not European forces supported by senior state officials, aim to make the Church renounce the struggle against sin,” stated Ghenadie Valuta, noting that not the Church becomes involved in the political or economic life, but the politicians adopt laws that affect the spiritual-religious life of the faithful. He referred to the Law on the Equality of Chances that, according to the priest, promotes tolerance for the sexual minorities.
Ghenadie Valuţa also said that the attacks on the Metropolitan Bishop are in fact designed to weaken the whole Church. “They are aimed at frightening and subduing the head of the Synod and the main leader of the Church in Moldova so as to shut him up and prevent the conception of Orthodox or spiritual struggle from being implemented according to the biblical teachings,” he stated.
Mihai Balica, a member of the Association “Pro-Ortodoxia”, said that even if the mass media misinform and attack the Metropolitan Bishop, they will defend him as he their ‘shepherd’. “He listened to us and we are thus ready to protest for months if our rights are violated and sin is promoted. Parishioner Alexandru said the Orthodox Christians will protect their country by any means, noting that other Christian denominations had no reaction to the adoption of laws that undermine the Christian values.
Over the last few days, the media broadcast a feature saying that Metropolitan Bishop is the founder of two companies, the administrator of another company, the owner of a luxury apartment, a vacation house, a hectare of wood in Ialoveni, a building registered in the name of a woman and of a new car. There were shown pictures of the Metropolitan Bishop vacationing in the company of a woman. Ghenadie Valuta said that His Holiness Vladimir will provide more information over the accusations made against him in a news conference on September 21.
