Statement
by Archbishop Markell Michaescu of Bălți and Fălești
of the Orthodox Church of Moldova

 

at the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference 2025

 

 Monday, 13 October
Plenary session 6: Tolerance and non-discrimination I, including:

-Addressing racism, xenophobia and discrimination, anti-Semitism and intolerance

and discrimination against Christians, Muslims and members of other religions

 

Distinguished participants,

 

I am an archbishop of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, heading the Bălți and Fălești Eparchy. I am submitting this statement within the framework of the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, under the agenda of Plenary Sessions 6 and 10, devoted respectively to “Combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination against Christians” and to “Freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.”

 

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Finland, which is chairing the OSCE this year, for continuing the Organization’s efforts to protect religious freedom. The OSCE and ODIHR[1] have repeatedly detailed, in documents of various levels, the obligations of participating States to support interfaith and interreligious dialogue in a spirit of mutual understanding, and to respect the rights and freedoms of all representatives of religious organizations, including the principle of non-interference by states in the internal affairs of religious denominations. Respect for the right of believers to freely choose their religious center, as well as to determine their organizational and canonical structure in accordance with their faith, is an integral part of religious freedom and of the right to freedom of religion guaranteed by Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

 

Most European countries, despite the widespread negative rhetoric against the Russian Orthodox Church, understand that believers’ rights and religious convictions are, from a legal standpoint, separate from politics, and that the faithful cannot be held responsible for the actions of their leaders or punished and restricted for political reasons. States likewise have no right to ban churches or demand that we alter our canonical affiliation or organizational structure because of geopolitical changes. Freedom of religion, including the right to determine the canonical and organizational structure of the Church in accordance with international law, cannot be restricted even on the grounds of national security.

 

Accordingly, in countries that uphold the rule of law – such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and others – religious organizations that maintain canonical and organizational ties with the Russian Orthodox Church operate freely and without any restrictions. The authorities in these countries do not forbid pilgrimages or demand that citizens change the name of their confession or withdraw from the Russian Orthodox Church to join another jurisdiction – for example, the Ecumenical Patriarchate or the Bessarabian Metropolis.

 

Unfortunately, in a number of other countries politicians are not ashamed to take such steps, exerting unlawful pressure on us as religious leaders and subjecting our believers to discrimination. This is precisely what is happening today in Moldova.

 

We are encountering numerous cases of arbitrariness by the authorities: our faithful are subjected to intensified checks at the borders; in some cases, they are denied permission to leave the country, disrupting pilgrimages; they are fined considerable amounts – up to 2,000 US dollars. I myself have been prevented from leaving the country three times due to illegal actions by officials who detained me 

at the airport under the pretext of “inspection,” violating my right to freedom of movement.

 

At one point even the President of our country publicly declared that our Church is supposedly “a tool of Russian influence.”[2] Thus, a hostile attitude toward the Church is gradually taking shape in our country, and we face an increasing number of instances of aggressive arbitrariness by the authorities toward our believers.

 

Moreover, within Moldova’s judicial system active attempts are being made to terminate the agreements between the state and the Orthodox Church of Moldova regarding the use of monasteries and churches that had earlier been transferred to us by the government. Legal proceedings aimed at depriving the Church of its property rights and transferring them to the Bessarabian Metropolis of the Romanian Orthodox Church have been ongoing with government support for several years. There is a high probability that these lawsuits are being used as a tool to overturn prior state decisions on the restitution of monasteries and churches to the Orthodox Church of Moldova, which has long since restored and maintained them.

 

Is the state truly entitled to confiscate from one Church property that had already been returned and painstakingly restored by it?

 

In assessing the situation in Moldova, one cannot fail to mention the attempted violent seizure of the church in Grinăuți. Although our community had not decided to join the Bessarabian Metropolis of the Romanian Orthodox Church, criminals attempted to take over the church building by force. The attempt failed, but it was carried out with the direct participation of representatives of the Bessarabian Metropolis.

 

In this regard, I must emphasize that the Moldovan authorities are unlawfully supporting the Bessarabian Metropolis of the Romanian Orthodox Church while discriminating against our own Church. The Bessarabian Metropolis has the right to receive financial assistance from the Romanian Orthodox Church; its clergy are paid directly from the Romanian state budget.[3] Our priests, by contrast, are fined for attempting to collect private donations to pay church utility bills, such as electricity. We are prohibited from freely receiving financial donations from abroad. Consequently, in Moldova we are deprived of equal rights with the clergy of the Bessarabian Metropolis – something that, according to international legal standards, constitutes discrimination on the grounds of religious affiliation.

 

In conclusion, on behalf of the faithful of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, I wish to recommend that the OSCE and its participating States adopt measures to urge the Moldovan authorities to protect the right to freedom of religion and to end the discrimination against the Orthodox Church of Moldova.

 

Specific measures in this regard should include:

• Ending any hate speech or incitement of religious enmity by Moldovan officials against the faithful of our Church, including public narratives about “Russian influence” or other such propagandistic clichés used by certain politicians against us;
• Ensuring that our religious organizations and clergy enjoy equal rights with other denominations, including the ability to receive financial donations freely from abroad, and to travel abroad for pilgrimages without any special or intensified border checks compared to other citizens;
• Stopping violent seizures of our churches and ensuring that those responsible for such illegal acts are held criminally accountable;
• Ending unlawful interference with the judicial system, which is currently being used by our opponents to strip our Church of historically owned monasteries and churches, contrary to the state’s obligation to restitute such property to its lawful owner – the Orthodox Church of Moldova;
• Stopping proselytism and the granting of privileged conditions, benefits, or advantages to the Bessarabian Metropolis or other confessions over others.

 

For the video version of the statement of Archbishop Markell and additional materials, please use this link: www.protiktor.com/moldovacases

 

 

Thank you for your attention.

 

Archbishop Markell Michaescu
Bălți and Fălești Eparchy
Orthodox Church of Moldova