Moldova Church angered by UN representative’s statement

The Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and Entire Moldova labeled the statements of UN representative Heiner Bielefeldt as an attack, after the latter said that the Orthodox Church in Moldova had a privileged status. Metropolitan Secretary Vadim Cheibas delivered a message from His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir to the press, saying that the UN expert’s statement sounded like an order and the real purpose of the claims in defense of religious and sexual minorities was the violation of the Orthodox majority of Moldovans, Info-Prim Neo reports. Metropolitan Vladimir dismissed the allegations against the Orthodox Church as “groundless, aggressive and untrue”. “They should know that the voice of the Church won’t cease to tell that virtue is virtue, that sin is sin and unlawfulness is unlawfulness. This is what bothers those who advocate the so-called equality of rights from the highest positions”, says His Eminence. According to the Metropolitan Church, the guilt falls not only on the UN representatives or other structures, bun on society as a whole and especially the intelligentsia that prepared the stage for such statements. “It’s not wrong to say that ordinary Christians have their share of guilt for what’s happening. Uninvited guests come and tell us how to live and how to govern ourselves”, reads the message. Sergiu Ostaf, head of the Resource Center for Human Rights, member of the Antidiscrimination Coalition, told Info-Prim Neo that when some facts are observed and brought to the public it isn’t discrimination. “It’s one’s right to express a point of view. If this opinion harms the image of the Church, then the Church has legal tools to act. In this case, we speak about opinions that differed from those of the Orthodox Church and may have upset the latter. Discrimination means something different, when an actor is treated differently without justification. I don’t know any case when the Church was discriminated”, said Sergiu Ostaf. UN representative Heiner Bielefeldt had recently presented a report on religious freedom in Moldova. The expert was concerned about the “privileged status of the Orthodox Church in Moldova”, which according to him violated the rights of people who shared different beliefs. He recommended the government to provide solid legislation against discrimination, to fight interreligious hate and to facilitate the registration of other denominations in line with international standards.