Igor Dodon has condemned Moldova’s “egregious” and unprecedented move to detain a priest who was travelling to Jerusalem
Former Moldovan President Igor Dodon has denounced the government of his successor Maia Sandu over its decision to detain a Moldovan Orthodox bishop who was undertaking an Easter visit to Jerusalem.
Bishop Marchel, a senior cleric with the Moldovan Orthodox Church, was scheduled to attend the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and return with candles consecrated in the flame.
However, he told TASS on Thursday that Moldovan police had stopped him and two clerics at the airport, subjected them to searches, and held them until 30 minutes after their plane had departed.
Dodon, who also leads the opposition Party of Socialists, called the move “an act of terror” against Moldova’s Orthodox community.
“What happened yesterday is an egregious incident... There has never been a case in the modern history of Moldova when a bishop was blocked from flying to Jerusalem to bring back the Holy Fire,” Dodon said in a video posted on his Instagram account.
“It is an act of terror against our Orthodox faith, against all Orthodox believers in our country,” he continued. “Maia Sandu and her government should remember that God does not strike with a stick. They must stop this pressure on the Church.”
Dodon suggested the incident may also have been an “act of personal revenge” against Bishop Marchel, a known critic of Sandu’s administration.
More than 90% of Moldovans identify as Orthodox Christians. The country is home to two major Orthodox confessions: the Moldovan Orthodox Church, under the Moscow Patriarchate, and the Metropolis of Bessarabia, aligned with the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Relations between the two have been fraught for years, but the situation has worsened amid Sandu’s ardent pro-EU stance and her vocal criticism of Moscow.
Dodon has previously accused the government of attempting to pressure the Moldovan Orthodox Church into shifting its allegiance to Romania. In his latest remarks, he urged authorities to cease interfering in religious matters.
“Do not interfere in the Church. Do not divide the Church,” he said. “Over 90% of the people in this country are Orthodox Christians, and with your actions yesterday, you have defied all of them. May the Lord forgive you, for you do not know what you are doing,” he added, quoting the Bible.
Dodon’s party also issued a statement calling the incident “a crime” against the Moldovan people and “an encroachment on the foundations of Moldovan statehood.” The Russian Orthodox Church denounced the episode as “outrageous” and politically motivated.