Wooden icons, crucifixes, candelabrums, picture and painting frames and other objects made by detainees were sold in the square of the God’s Birth Metropolitan Cathedral in Chisinau on June 2. The proceeds will be donated to children with disabilities of a Balti-based rehabilitation center, Info-Prim Neo reports. The event started with a service held by priest Corneliu Dobrogeanu, who also officiates at religious ceremonies in prison churches. His Holiness Vladimir, the Metropolitan Bishop of Chisinau and all Moldova, said in the event that the prisoners who make such icons can pray to God for forgiveness and should avoid jails in the future. Asked by the journalists if these icons have the same holy power, His Holiness Vladimir said all the icons must be blessed and then they become holy. Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim said every person deserves a second chance and forgiveness for the committed mistakes. The detainees must be supported in their efforts to develop their abilities so as to facilitate their social inclusion. “A crime is often the result of lack of faith, education, values and of spiritual poverty,” said the minister. He and other politicians attending the event bought by an icon. The third exhibition of the kind was organized by the Department of Penitentiary Institutions of the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Moldovan Metropolitan Church. About 6,400 persons are held in Moldova’s 17 penitentiaries.