Romanian and Moldovan Orthodox Christians in conflict

As has been the case in Kiev for some time, there is also conflict in Chişinău between the Orthodox Church of Moldova – linked to the Moscow Patriarchate – and the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which belongs to the Romanian-speaking Church. The Patriarchate of Bucharest itself accuses pro-Russian hierarchs of interfering in the country's electoral processes. A dispute that brings to the surface the troubled area between the Danube and the Dniester.

Chişinău (AsiaNews) - An internal conflict within the Orthodox Churches similar to the one underway in Ukraine, against the backdrop of the war between Moscow and Kiev, is also developing between Bucharest and Chişinău.

The Orthodox Church of Moldova is canonically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, but the Metropolis of Bessarabia, a part of the Moldovan Church that submits to the Patriarchate of Romania, has separated from it and accuses its brothers of supporting Russia's military policies, This has created strong tensions and led to the expulsion of priests who do not wish to submit to the religious justification of the aggression against Ukraine.

The Metropolis of Bessarabia, officially registered in 2002 by the Moldovan government, even disputes the term “Orthodox Church of Moldova”, which it considers erroneous from both a historical and canonical point of view, leading the faithful into confusion and claiming to represent the entire Orthodox ecclesial community on the territory of Moldova.

A recent statement by the metropolis, which is also based in Chişinău, states that “this title actually refers only to the local structure of the Moscow Patriarchate”, in practice bringing together Russian-speaking faithful, while authentic Moldovans belong to the Romanian-speaking Church.

The Patriarchate of Bucharest itself accuses some hierarchs of the pro-Russian Church of Moldova of ‘direct and aggressive interference in the country's electoral processes,’ strongly condemning the Church's involvement in politics.

For its part, the pro-Russian Moldovan metropolis denies any direct relationship with Moscow and confirms that it is ‘open to all believers in Moldova’, as ‘the Orthodox Church of Moldova is not a Russian Church, but the Church of the entire people living in this territory, composed of faithful of different ethnicities and nationalities; we are a free and independent Church in our own administration’.

Already in 2020, the pro-Russian Church reduced eleven priests who had decided to ‘switch sides’ to the lay state, considering their choice ‘arbitrary, unfounded and non-canonical’, and since then tensions have continued to rise, especially following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the many Russian interferences in Moldova's elections.

According to the Moldovan-Bessarabian Church, ‘these expulsions have no canonical or legal validity, considering that the priests' choice was supported by that of their parishioners, and that there had been no relations with the Moscow Patriarchate for some time’.

The very title of ‘Metropolis of Bessarabia’ refers to the disputed historical definitions of the area between the Danube and the Dniester, which today is identified as the Republic of Moldova, and for a long time represented a buffer zone between the great powers of Austria, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

In 1918, the Russian governorate of Bessarabia briefly gained independence, only to be democratically absorbed by Romania before ending up under Soviet rule after the Second World War.

Today, the northern part of Bessarabia is a region of Moldova, while the southern part, considered ‘historic Bessarabia’, is part of Ukraine. The Orthodox Churches in the region have fluctuated in various directions depending on the political situation, but the reference to the part of the region most closely linked to Romania clearly indicates a desire to free itself from Russian cultural and religious domination, making the friction between Moscow and Chişinău particularly steeped in religious motivations, as was the case in Ukraine.