MINELRES: Recent Abuses against the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine

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Original sender: Ionas Aurelian Rus <ionasrus@eden.rutgers.edu>


Recent Abuses against the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ukraine

The newspaper "Flux", in which the article below appeared in the
Romanian language, is a major daily newspaper published in Chisinau, the
capital of the Republic of Moldova. The translation is mine.

Ionas Aurelian Rus

http://www.flux.md/news/modb2.php?action=show&idu=13634&cat=Cotidian%
20National&rub=Politica


Flux, National Newspaper. Politics. no. 53. 2006-4-13 


Priest of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate, persecuted in Ukraine

The priest Anatol Curtev, the parish priest of the Church Holy Apostles 
Peter and Paul of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate (of the Romanian 
Orthodox Patriarchate - Ionas Aurelian Rus) from the Hagi-Curda 
commune (the Ismail rayon, the Odessa region) was attacked on Sunday, 
April 9, while he was heading toward his native village, Anadol.

Petru Grosu, for FLUX

According to the priest, when he left the church service on Sunday, he
was followed by the father Alexei Grecu, who works for the Odessa
Metropolitanate, subordinated to the Russian Patriarchate, who was
accompanied by a group of men. In the train station of [the town of -
Ionas Aurelian Rus] Ismail, the priest was attacked by Father Alexei.
Those who accompanied him brutalized him, threatened him with death,
also applying force, as it is noted in a press release of Ziarul de
Garda [of the Moldovan capital of Chisinau - Ionas Aurelian Rus].

Father Anatol Curtev now demands a medical expertise of the wounds that
he has suffered. He needs both medical care, but also the intervention
of the judicial authorities in the investigation of this case, states
the press release.

According to Vasile Iordachescu, from Hagi-Curda, the attacks against
the Bessarabian Metropolitanate are becoming more and more common,
especially after the last elections in Ukraine [i.e., the March 26, 2006
parliamentary and local elections - Ionas Aurelian Rus]. A week ago,
also on Sunday, Alexei Grecu entered in the church of the Bessarabian
Metropolitanate and hit father Anatol, in the presence of the
Christians. "The Romanians in the south of Bessarabia are discriminated,
have limited rights, are marginalized, regardless of the results of the
parliamentary and general elections, especially when it deals with out
national values: language, culture, faith", states Iordachescu, noting
that, at this moment, the Romanian communities in Ukraine can not count
on the representatives of the [Ukrainian] state, their only hope being
the involvement of the international bodies in solving conflicts of the
type of the one at
Hagi-Curda.

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