Metropolitan Antonie marks 24th anniversary of Metropolis of Bessarabia’s legal recognition

Metropolitan Antonie of Bessarabia officiated a Te Deum at the St John the Theologian Metropolitan Chapel in Chișinău on Thursday, marking 24 years since the official recognition of the Metropolis of Bessarabia, re-established after the fall of communism.

The service was followed by the reading of a message from the metropolitan, who described the anniversary as “a reaffirmation of a historical, canonical and spiritual truth after a long period in which religious freedom was tested by the consequences of a totalitarian past.”

Metropolitan Antonie noted that the European Court of Human Rights judgment in Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and Others v. Moldova, delivered on 13 December 2001 and implemented through the authorities’ official recognition of the Metropolis on 30 July 2002, remains one of the most significant European rulings on religious freedom following the collapse of the communist regimes.

The judgment reaffirmed a fundamental democratic principle, he said: that religious freedom includes the right of faith communities to organise their lives according to their own spiritual and historical identity, while the state has a duty to guarantee the free exercise of…