Orthodox alliance seeks referendum on religion classes, condemns biometric passports

“Those who oppose the presence of God in schools and do not want a prosperous culture and morality for the young generation are the grandsons of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”, declared Ghenadie Valuta, the chairman of the ProOrtodoxia association, at a press conference on Friday. Valuta has said that religion as a school object remains today as marginalized as it was under the communist government, even though both the prime minister and the minister of education promised to introduce mandatory religion classes. That was, according to Valuta, an electoral lie. Ghenadie Valuta expressed his profound disappointment by the decision of the Court of Appeals, which ruled that the introduction of Basic Orthodoxy courses may not be a matter to be put up for a referendum. “Only the parents have the right to decide on teaching of Orthodoxy in schools, alongside with history and grammar, and express their will in a democratic manner at a referendum. The adversaries to this initiative manifest themselves as anti-democratic, communist and totalitarian people. They are like the Nazis of the people's culture and beliefs. Let it be known to these people that only Satan and his servants are in opposition to God and his religion”, declared Ghenadie Valuta. Speaking on a separate subject, fr. Teodor Olarasu told the same press conference the intended introduction of biometric passports was “a moral offense to the dignity of man through his {chippization}”. According to the priest, the introduction of numerical codes for each citizen will allow machines to read information about a given person, without that person even knowing it, which would be a grave violation of privacy. This “digital colonization” of people, says the priest, will have disastrous effects, as it represents one of the stages of affixing the Antichrist's stigma 666 onto people. The association ProOrtodxia, which represents the Moldovan Alliance of Orthodox Associations, insists that biometric passports must not be mandatory.