“It Is Time to Correct Historical Mistakes”. A Priest Urged the Moldovan Metropolis to Join the Romanian Patriarchate

Pavel Borschevsky, the rector of the capital’s St. Dumitru Church, called on the Metropolis of Moldova to withdraw from the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and join the Metropolis of Bessarabia of the Romanian Orthodox Church. His appeal to Metropolitan Vladimir was supported by the majority of priests and parishioners of the Chisinau priesthood district №2. According to the clergy, the Moldovan Church today finds itself in an emergency situation because of the “unjust and treacherous war that Russia is waging in Ukraine.” “Metropolitan Vladimir’s letter to Patriarch Kirill, which points out that our nation of Latin origin has nothing in common with the Russian world, allows us to believe that the time has come to correct historical mistakes and restore the dignity stolen by the Russian occupation,” Borshevsky’s appeal reads, published on the Facebook page of St. Dumitru Church. The priest also points out that after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia lost the dignity of a spiritual father of the Church, turning into a political servant, “openly and unjustly calling for bloodshed between brothers in blood and faith in Christ.” The Moldovan Metropolis came to light after a letter from Metropolitan Vladimir to Patriarch Kirill, sent to Moscow on 5 September, appeared in the public space. It states that the “Russian world” is strange to our national values and that the reunification of Moldova with Romania will take place in a relatively short period of time. The head of the Moldovan Metropolis also writes that the gap between Chisinau and Moscow has deepened further because the Russian Orthodox Church supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine.