President Maia Sandu said that Russia’s war against Ukraine made everyone see the reality. The question is evident, how can the Russian Church support the war and kill innocent people? In such conditions, the Church in Moldova cannot stay aside and pretend not to be seeing what is going on, IPN reports.

“Ultimately, the Church is here for the parishioners of the Republic of Moldova and cannot stay somewhere else. So, as we feel we want peace and believe in peace, and we believe that the borders of all the countries need to be respected, the Church cannot stay aside and pretend not to be seeing anything,” President Sandu stated in the program “At 360 Degrees” on Radio Moldova station.

As to the letter sent by Metropolitan Bishop Vladimir to Russian Patriarch Kirill, the official said that for her this meant an element for coming closer to the reality.

“Now this reality can no longer be ignored and, even if I cannot pronounce on this and give pieces of advice, we must act together. The whole society should unite, including the Church, for the benefit of the country and the people of this country, which is the peace, the possibility of improving the living standards of people. The unity of society will help us and I hope we will have this unity on the path of European integration,” noted President Sandu.

Since Russia launched its war against Ukraine, tens of priests in Moldova defected from the Metropolitan Church of Moldova, which is part of the Russian Orthodox Church, to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, which is canonically subordinated to the Romanian Russian Orthodox Church. They expressed their dissatisfaction with the pro-war attitude of Russian Patriarch Kirill. Other tens of priests intend to take the same step and reregistered the bishoprics with the Public Services Agency.

In a letter sent to Patriarch Kirill in September, Metropolitan Bishop Vladimir complained that the Metropolitan Church of Moldova has lost priests and parishioners. He said the priests are attracted to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia with higher salaries and the Moldovan and Romanian authorities in the recent past have openly supported the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia. Representatives of the Metropolitan Church of Moldovan recently confirmed that they received a response from Moscow and comments on this will be yet made.

Another group of priests, accompanied by parishioners, on Monday went to the Metropolitan Church of Moldova to sign a resolution by which they demand that the priests who joined the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia should be defrocked.