Moldovan Church Urges Govt to Reject LGBT Couples’ Rights

The Metropolis of Chisinau and All of Moldova, widely known as the Moldovan Orthodox Church, asked the government on Monday not to recognise same-sex couples' partnerships as legal or bring in legislation to protect LGBT couples' rights in line with a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling.

"We are in a worrying situation for our Christian-Orthodox people… For Moldova, this means mandatory recognition by law of same-sex couples," said Metropolitan Vladimir of Moldova.

"A commensurate reaction will follow the timidest attempt to legally register a gay couple in our country because such decisions go against the eminently Orthodox and historical conscience of the people," the cleric warned.

As one of the members of the Council of Europe, Moldova must comply with the European Court of Human Rights rulings.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled on January 17 that Council of Europe countries must recognise and protect same-sex families under the law. The decision came from the case of Fedotova and others against Russia, in which the court ruled that the Russian state's refusal to provide legal recognition to same-sex couples violated the plaintiffs' human rights.

The case was launched by three same-sex couple who applied to the Russian authorities have their relationships formally registered but were rejected.

The Metropolis of Chisinau and All of Moldova is canonically subordinate to the Patriarchate of Moscow. The two churches claim the LGBT community is a danger to the traditional church-supporting family.

Metropolitan Vladimir of Moldova urged Orthodox believers to take a stand "so that such legalization and promotion of sin does not occur".

He also insisted that he is supported by the "overwhelming majority"...