The Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia welcomes all the priests who decide to join it and categorically rejects any accusation that the priests who join it are corrupted by being offered benefits provided by the Romanian state, said representatives of the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia that is canonically subordinate to the Patriarchate of Romania. For their part, representatives of the Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and all Moldova, which is canonically subordinate to the Russian Patriarchate, said the number of priests who defected from the Moldovan Metropolitan Church to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia is much lower than the press reported, IPN reports.
Recently, a group of priests led by priest Pavel Borshevschi, of Saint Dumitru Church of Chisinau, called on Metropolitan Bishop Vladimir to initiate the process of joining the Moldovan Metropolitan Church to the Patriarchate of Romania. It happened after a number of bishoprics have recently joined the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, showing this way their disagreement with the fact that the Russian Patriarchate supports the war in Ukraine.
“The Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia remains as receptive and welcomes the priests who join our Church. The Church should bring unity. We do not corrupt anyone. Only this year it was decided that the sum of €2 million will be divided appropriately to all the three eparchies so as to erect cathedrals, to do things in our missionary activity. What we received so far were contributions from the Romanian state for the priests of the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia. The contribution we receive from the Romanian state is for activities we perform at the local level,” priest Ion Marian, of the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, stated in the program “Shadow Cabinet” on JurnalTV channel.
On Thursday, after a meeting of archpriests and abbots where the request of the “Borshevschi group” was examined, it was announced that the Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and all Moldova keeps its status and refuses to join the Patriarchate of Romania.
“The discussion was closed clearly and very trenchantly and all things were arranged. Each archpriest discussed with the priests from their bishopric and what happened at the meeting was nothing but the presentation of the people’s voice. The people’s voice is also expressed by opinion polls that show the Moldovan citizens’ wish to unite with Romania has declined. We speak about the union of a country with Romania and of a church with Romania, but the citizens are the same. The archpriests and abbots at the meeting stated the wish of the people from the bishoprics they patronize. It was rumored that 60 bishoprics joined the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, but actually only 13 bishoprics did this the past year,” said archpriest Iulian Rață, of the Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and all Moldova.
“The letter of the priests led by priest Borshevschi said that it’s time to listen to the people’s voice. But after the curtain was drawn, it was ascertained that no one listens to the people’s voice. They said that they voted unanimously, but this seems strange to me when there is a group of people who stated another opinion,” said publicist and writer Mircea V. Ciobanu.
According to a message posted on the Facebook page of Saint Dumitru Church led by Pavel Borshevschi, in the meeting held at the Moldovan Metropolitan Church, they voted unanimously for the unity of the Orthodox Church of Moldova and the subject of joining the Patriarchate of Romania remained open.
