Bălți, Moldova, October 28, 2021
Photo: ytimg.com
All parliamentarians who voted in favor of the Istanbul Convention earlier this month have been excommunicated in one Moldovan Diocese.
Moldovan Parliament ratified the controversial “Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,” commonly known as the Istanbul Convention, on its final reading on Friday, October 15.
The Moldovan Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate issued a statement before the vote, calling for the government to reject the Convention, noting that while it has praiseworthy elements, it also unfortunately departs from the Biblical conception of mankind, with its problematic gender ideology. Following the vote, His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Moldova issued his own statement, emphasizing that it’s “completely inadmissible to promote and adopt laws that contradict the history, Orthodox faith, culture and morality, but also the two-thousand-year traditions of our people.”
And on October 18, His Eminence Archbishop Marchel of Bălți and Fălești published an address on the diocesan website, announcing his decision that all “voters of the soul-destroying law called the ‘Europe Convention’ are forbidden Holy Communion in the churches of the Diocese of Bălți and Fălești of the Orthodox Church of Moldova until Pentecost Sunday 2022.”
The Istanbul Convention is, according to Abp. Marchel, “downright dangerous to the highest degree, because it hides in its womb a destructive surprise,” given the supposed right of children to change their gender included in the Convention.
Unfortunately, most parliamentarian deputies are “unaware of their calling and obligation to facilitate the lives of the people,” the hierarch writes.
Unfortunately, many deputies, including those who identify as Orthodox, are working against the Church, Abp. Machel laments: “Those employed in the service of the people barbarically ruin what the Holy Church is building, namely—THE SOUL OF MAN!”
In such situations, it is the Church’s mission to call people to repentance, and thus, those who voted for the Istanbul Convention are excommunicated until Pentecost.
And, if any of those concerned consciously ignore the Archbishop’s decision, “they will voluntarily fall under the severe incidence of the holy Church canons, which pursue the purpose of correction (not punishment) of the lost Christian.”
The Bulgarian and Polish Churches have also spoken out against the Istanbul Convention. In Bulgarian, the Constitutional Court has ruled the Istanbul Convention unconstitutional, and on Tuesday, it ruled that the term “gender” must be understood only in its biological sense in the legal field.
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