Source:         www.forum18.org

Date:            January 29, 2008

 
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
 
Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has stepped up his rhetoric against
the freedom of thought, conscience and belief of the Bessarabian
Metropolitanate on visits to Brussels and Moscow, Forum 18 News Service
notes. During a joint press conference with European Commission President
Jose Manuel Barroso on 14 January, Voronin stated that he had not ever
threatened to revoke the registration of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate.
However, he then claimed that the existence of it could lead to a conflict
similar to that in Kosovo. His spokesperson Natalia Visanu insisted to
Forum 18 that the President's remarks have been "misunderstood". Yet she
declined to explain to Forum 18 why Voronin has made repeated hostile
remarks about a legally-functioning religious community.
 
Bessarabian church members have condemned the remarks to Forum 18. "The
problems we have faced - including the expulsion of Romanian priests and
intrusive check-ups on our parishes - are the consequences of the
president's remarks," Deacon Andrei Deleu of the Bessarabian
Metropolitanate told Forum 18 (see F18News 28 January 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1076>).
 
A week after Voronin made his remarks in Brussels, he repeated in Moscow
his criticism of the Church. "The establishment of the so-called
'Metropolis of Bessarabia' and its structures is part of Romania's
aggressive policy against the Moldovan state," Voronin told the Russian
Interfax news agency on 21 January after meeting Russian Orthodox Patriarch
Alexy.
 
Presidential spokesperson Visanu vigorously denied that the President had
spoken out against the Bessarabian Metropolitanate (though she pointedly
avoided ever using the name of the Church to Forum 18). "No-one said that
the government should cancel its registration," she insisted to Forum 18 on
17 January. "It is a misunderstanding of the President's remarks. He merely
said that if there are problems it could come to the point of looking again
at its registration. The President has no powers to strip anyone of
registration."
 
Asked about Voronin's remarks about a Kosovo-style conflict, Visanu
responded: "The President said that if events around it are such that it
leads to a worsening situation, then the government could look at the
question of not fulfilling the decision of the European Court of Human
Rights."
 
The Bessarabian Metropolitanate only achieved registration in 2001 in the
wake of a fine imposed on Moldova by the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) in Strasbourg. A similar fine from the ECHR in February 2007 has
still failed to overturn the denial of registration to the True Orthodox
Church led by Bishop Antoni Rudei (see F18News 8 March 2007
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=926>).
 
The only Orthodox jurisdictions to have been able to gain state
registration in Moldova by applying through normal state procedures are the
Moscow Patriarchate and the Belokrinitsa Old Believers.
 
Without registration religious communities have no status in law, cannot
run bank accounts, cannot employ people officially, cannot invite foreign
citizens, cannot run bank accounts or receive funds,  and cannot own, buy
or sell property.
 
Bishop Filaret (Pancu), who leads the diocese in Moldova of the Kiev
Patriarchate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, said that his Church tried
to gain registration again in summer 2007. "They give no argument as to why
they won't register us - they just won't," told Forum 18 on 17 January. "We
won in all the courts, right up to the Supreme Court."
 
Fr Vasily Ikizli, who leads one of four parishes in Moldova of the Russian
Orthodox Church Abroad under the jurisdiction of Archbishop Agafangel
(Pashkovsky) of Odessa, says his parish was denied registration in 2006.
"They won't register any parishes until we have a national body registered,
but they won't do that," he told Forum 18 on 24 January from the village of
Congaz in the southern Comrat District. He said that about 150 people
attend the liturgy each Sunday held in a private house and he wants to
build a church. "Without registration that might be difficult."
 
Also denied registration are all Muslim communities as well as many
Protestant congregations (see F18News 24 January 2007
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=902>). Talgat Masaev, who
leads the Spiritual Organisation of Muslims in Moldova, complained that
"someone must have given an order not to register us". He said the Justice
Ministry rejected their latest registration application in December 2007,
citing inadequacies in the group's statute. "The policy hasn't changed,"
Masaev lamented.
 
The Justice Ministry took over registration from the State Service for
Religious Denominations in the wake of the adoption of a new Religion Law
in 2007 (see  F18News 6 August 2007
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1003>).
 
Masaev's Muslim group has long complained of police check-ups on those
leaving Friday prayers. He said the most recent such check-up was in autumn
2007. "The fact that they check up at Friday prayers is difficult to
understand," he told Forum 18. "This and the denial of registration are
strange, given that Moldova is supposed to be moving closer to Europe."
 
The Bessarabian Metropolitanate is the only religious community to have
been subjected to such repeated extremely hostile rhetoric from senior
officials. Speaking on national television on 30 November, President
Voronin condemned the decision by the Romanian Orthodox Church - of which
the Bessarabian Metropolitanate is a part - to reactivate three dioceses in
Moldova to add to the one existing diocese based in Chisinau. He warned
that he does not need "a second Kosovo" in Moldova and threatened to revoke
the official registration of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate.
 
Presidential spokesperson Visanu maintained that there had been no problem
with the Bessarabian Metropolitanate having legal status until October
2007, when the new dioceses were created. She claimed their existence
created "tension in the country". However, she refused to explain to Forum
18 what tension she was referring to or why the Metropolitanate could not
set up its own structures as it chose.
 
Visanu denied that the recent developments with the Bessarabian
Metropolitanate were connected with the rights of religious believers,
which she claimed continued to be respected. "This is not the question. Its
registration was alright until they restored their dioceses a few months
ago, causing tension in society." She insisted there was a "sub-text" to
the issue, but refused to spell out what she believed this was.
 
Asked by Forum 18 why all the non-Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox
jurisdictions have faced denial of registration and obstruction of their
activity Visanu responded: "The president doesn't have anything against
non-Moscow Patriarchate Churches. I can't answer for the State Service on
Religious Organisations or the Ministry of Justice. The President can't
follow everything." (END)
 
Further coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Moldova
is available at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=18&results=50>.
 
A printer-friendly map of Moldova is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=moldov>.