Biserica din Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească în contextul mişcării de renaştere naţională
The Church in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in the context of the national revival movement

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the evolution of the Orthodox Church in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR) in the context of the National Liberation Movement in Chişinău, under the influence of the perestroika and glasnost reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev. The analysis highlights the tensions between the aspiration for the Church in the MSSR to return under the jurisdiction of the Romanian Patriarchate and the opposition from pro-Russian clerics, supported by the Moscow Patriarchate. The conflict between the pro-Romanian faction – represented by clerics such as Father Petru Buburuz and backed by Chişinău’s intellectual elites, as well as by Romanian hierarchs (Patriarch Teoctist Arăpaşu, Metropolitan Daniel Ciobotea) – and the pro-Russian faction, led by Metropolitan Vladimir Cantarean and shaped by Moscow’s policies, generated profound frictions within the Orthodox Church in Moldova. These tensions manifested through calls for autonomy and demands for canonical subordination to the Romanian Patriarchate, in contrast to the efforts made by the Moscow Patriarchate to maintain control over the Moldovan Church.The period under analysis was marked by internal conflicts regarding national and religious identity, culminating in the schism of the Orthodox Church in the Republic of Moldova – a state of tension that persists to this day.

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