Comrat, Gagauzia, Moldova, June 10, 2025
Diocese of Cahul and Comrat
Authorities in Moldova banned the local diocese of the Moldovan Orthodox Church from holding a cross procession in Gagauzia on the feast of Pentecost.
Meanwhile, the weeklong Moldova Pride 2025 began the next day with state support.
Against the background of political unrest in Gagauzia, a highly conservative autonomous region within Moldova, with the recent arrest of its governor Evgenia Hutsul and ongoing tensions between the region and Moldova’s central government, the Cahul and Comrat Diocese decided to hold a procession for peace. The 45-mile procession was planned to pass through five cities and villages, ending in the Gagauzia capital of Comrat.
However, priests were contacted by law enforcement and told that they weren’t allowed to hold a procession before the Pride events.
A priest of the Cahul Diocese stated in a video address:
Allow me to express pain, sadness, and dissatisfaction about what’s happening in our Moldovan Orthodox Church. Dear Christians, as we know, the Diocese of Cahul and Comrat decided to hold a cross procession. But they were summoned by the competent organs, who forbade the cross procession on the feast of the Holy Trinity. And this is a shared pain in the hearts of Christians.
The feast of Sodom and Gomorrah, sin and evil, celebrated in Moldova on June 15, is acceptable to them. There’s not a single obstacle for them. I want to ask, what is happening in our times, when they persecute the Orthodox Church? But the biggest question I think about, and it’s a painful one, is what will happen with our children? What awaits us in the future?
The People’s Assembly of Gagauzia unanimously voted in May 2022 to ban LGBTQ marches and propaganda. And last month, Mayor Ion Ceban announced the same for the Moldovan capital of Chișinău. The State Chancellery demanded that he lift the ban, but he has thus far refused, saying he’s prepared to fight in the courts to maintain the ban.
Moldova Pride organizers intend to defy the ban and hold the annual march in Chișinău anyway.
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