The Russian Orthodox Church called the detention of the Moldovan bishop a deliberate mockery

The detention of Bishop Markel of the Moldovan Metropolis at the Chisinau airport is a deliberate mockery on the part of the republic's authorities. This was announced on April 18 by Vladimir Legoyda, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and the Media of the Moscow Patriarchate.

"This is an absolutely egregious decision by the Moldovan authorities, a deliberate mockery of the faithful of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, the religious community of the majority of Moldovans. To deprive people of the opportunity to touch the holy things delivered from the ancient city of Jerusalem on Holy Saturday! The advisers of the Moldovan authorities, who are obviously far from Christianity, think that they will solve some kind of political problem with this," he wrote on the Telegram channel.

Representatives of the Moldovan opposition also reacted to the situation.

Regina Apostolova, a member of the Moldovan parliament from the Victory bloc, published a post on the Telegram channel in which she noted that the case of the bishop's detention was not a mistake or a bureaucratic failure, but a deliberate provocation and an attempt to deprive Moldovans of the Holy Fire from the canonical Orthodox Church.

"Instead of uniting people, the government deliberately pits believers against each other, turning religion into a political weapon. What is this if not open discrimination?" wrote Alexey Lungu, leader of the Chance party, which is part of the Victory bloc, on the Telegram channel.

The Party of Socialists of Moldova called the incident "terror against the Orthodox Church" of the republic and demanded a public explanation from the leadership of the border guard service and an official apology to Archbishop Markel. The party's statement was published on the Telegram channel.

Holy Fire — the miracle of Easter: how it appears, what to do with it

In 2025, Orthodox Christians will witness the descent of the Holy Fire on April 19.

On that day, Bishop Markel, who was on his way to Israel for the Holy Fire, was detained at passport control at Chisinau airport and his documents were seized without explanation.

In an interview with Izvestia, he said that, in his opinion, the detention was purposeful, and the purpose was his delay on the flight. At the same time, according to Markel, the search was completed 40 minutes before departure, but the passport was returned only on board the plane half an hour after departure.