Freedom of religion in Moldova
Other religious groups include Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentecostals, Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, evangelical Christians, Catholics, Lutherans, Muslims, Baha’is, Molokans, Messianic Jews, Presbyterians, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Salvation Army, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church), Falun Gong, and the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.
[3] For this reason, scholars claimed that an approach exclusively centred on the religious freedom juridical frame would appear inaccurate.
Drafters allegedly copied the passage almost word-for-word from the previous code, which was passed in 1961 when the country was part of the Soviet Union.
[3] Article 200 of the Administrative Offenses Code, which was adopted in 1985, prohibits any religious activities of registered or unregistered religions that violate current legislation.
from an ecclesiastical point of view, this is an administrative only issue (subject to canon laws), not a theological one, as the two belonged respectively to two autocephalous Churches (of Russia and of Romania), which are within the Eastern Orthodox communion.
The Metropolis of Bessarabia was reactivated in 1992 (after Moldova declared independence in 1991) when a number of priests broke away from the Moldovan Orthodox Church, and was only officially recognized in 2002, after years of being denied recognition.
The Metropolis of Bessarabia, which regards itself as the legal and canonical successor to the pre-World War II Romanian Orthodox Church, being endorsed by the ECHR, does not accept this decision.
The State Service on Religious Issues failed to implement the decision in the stipulated 30 days and subsequently asked the Court for a 2-week extension to register the church.
[1] The Kishinev community a "Patrimonial Ring" ("Родовое Кольцо") unites adherents of Slavic vernacular religion.
[1] In the early 2000s, the Transnistrian authorities have developed a new textbook that was to be used at all school levels, which reportedly contained negative and defamatory information regarding the Jehovah's Witnesses.
[3] In 2021, Jehovah’s Witnesses were unable to reregister as a religious organization and reported two active law cases regarding forced alternative civilian service in defense-related institutions, which was contrary to their beliefs.
Members say the police often show up at their Friday prayers, which are held at a local Islamic organization's offices, checking participants' documents and taking pictures.
On March 5, the police raided their meeting place after Friday prayers, detaining several members and subsequently deporting three Syrian citizens for not having proper legal residence documents.
On May 4, unknown persons attempted to set the Tiraspol synagogue on fire by throwing a Molotov cocktail onto the premises near a local gas supply.
