Carp: Parliament Cannot Force the Metropolis of Moldova to Sever Ties with the Russian Orthodox Church

Lilian Carp, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Public Order, stated that such intervention would violate the right to freedom of association. The statement came after the Liberal Party called on Parliament to adopt a law requiring the Metropolis of Moldova to end its subordination to the Moscow Patriarchate and, in the event of refusal, to declare it illegal, agora.md reports. Responding to journalists’ questions about the liberals’ proposal, Carp noted that historically the Metropolis of Bessarabia had controlled church property and religious life in the region before the annexation of Bessarabia. However, he stressed that any changes in relations between the two metropolises should occur peacefully. “The logic of the situation is that the Metropolis of Bessarabia indeed controlled property and religious life in what is now the Republic of Moldova before the annexation of Bessarabia. But this should take place under friendly conditions and within the framework of the right to association, which is guaranteed to everyone in the Republic of Moldova,” Lilian Carp said. According to Carp, any solution should be achieved through dialogue between the two church structures rather than through direct parliamentary intervention. “In such circumstances, there should be dialogue between the metropolises in order to reach a possible unification. Parliament cannot do this because it would violate people’s right to association,” the chairman of the security committee emphasized.