Reuters<\/a> reported.<\/p>\nMore than 90 percent of believers in Moldova, which is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, are Orthodox Christians.<\/p>\n
The invasion, enthusiastically supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, has accelerated the transfer of parishes from the Moscow-linked Moldovan Metropolis to the smaller Romanian-linked Bessarabian Metropolis.<\/p>\n
Since the invasion, more than 60 parishes have transitioned to the Romanian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n
More than 500 churches, synagogues, and mosques have been destroyed or damaged since the invasion began. That\u2019s one every two days.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be silent. Tell the world the truth. Aggression is not just a fight for territory, it\u2019s the destruction of holy shrines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Moscow-linked Moldovan Metropolis said his church condemned the invasion \u201cfrom day one\u201d and organized aid for more than 90,000 Ukrainian refugees, the largest number per capita in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt every service, I recite a special prayer in which I ask for mercy for the church and pray for an end to the war in Ukraine,\u201d Volodymyr said in a 2023 interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not afraid to call it the \u2018war in Ukraine\u2019 in prayer. I\u2019m not praying for Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Media reports have suggested that some priests from a Russian-linked church are supporting Russian incursions. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the reports. And the church acknowledges that groups of priests made \u201cpilgrimages\u201d to Russian holy sites last year with Russian funding.<\/p>\n
The split in the church\u2019s ranks reflects Moldova\u2019s turbulent history, with much of what is now Moldova having belonged at various times to the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union and \u201cGreater Romania.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Romanian-linked Bessarabian Metropolis is increasingly linked to Moldova\u2019s bid to join the European Union by 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moldova\u2019s government, which has criticized Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, on Sunday appealed to the country\u2019s clergy to \u201ctell the truth\u201d about the war, saying Moscow\u2019s war effort had destroyed about 500 churches. The government spokesman, Daniel Voda, made the remarks on the eve of the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, citing the split in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":216131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5148,5142],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-church-en","8":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/SPHDUAITCNMU3L5PQKHDMH57JM.avif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216537,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216536\/revisions\/216537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}