Inhabitants of Dereneu village of Calarasi district said the priest of the local church “Assumption of the Mother of God” Marin Florin decided to join the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia having only 18 signatures in favor, with some of these being false. According to them, the low number of signatures does not represent the wish of the locals.
In a news conference at IPN, Emilia Scurtu from Dereneu said she is among the persons who reportedly signed in favor of the joining of the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, but her signature was actually falsified. When this was done, she wasn’t even in the village.
Local Chira Railean said priest Marin Florin came young to the village and the villagers supported him both financially and morally. After it became known that he committed inadmissible acts, such as indecent proposals to girls, the locals broached the question about his leaving.
In the same news conference, secretary of the Bishopric of Ungheni and Nisporeni Vadim Corostinschi said that Marin Florin incited some of the founders, while the signatures of others were falsified in order to justify the intention to transfer the diocese to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia. The Bishopric of Ungheni and Nisporeni decided to stop him from serving following complaints submitted by people from the village, who expressed their indignation at the behavior of the priest whom they accused of appropriation of funds, making public of confessed sins, sexual harassment, campaigning and other wrongdoings.
The secretary also said that parishioners who are members of the Orthodox Church of Moldova are prevented from freely attending services at the local church. The Christians are involved in a church confrontation that is in parts political and these do not understand that this is a personal conflict. “The principle of separation of the Church from the State, which is defined by the Law on Religious Denominations, is only declarative in character. The Church does not have instruments to manage the own religious communities or to administer discipline by reprimanding or somehow else punishing the own priests as the state bodies intervene in the decision-making process by taking sides with the suspects or those to blame, offering them new activity opportunities,” said the priest, reading a statement issued by the Bishopric.
The Bishopric of Ungheni and Nisporeni that forms part of the Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and all Moldova on March 29 reacted to the accusations made by the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and the priest of Dereneu village of Calarasi district Florin Marin, as to the fact that the Bishopric organized the seizure of the local church. Secretary Vadim Corostinschi said the Christians who were in the church on March 28 were taken out by the police commissioner of Calarasi and the door was sealed. Consequently, the villagers wrote a letter to Prosecutor General Eduard Harunjen, asking that priest Marin Florin and the police employees should be held accountable.
