Moldovan court: Signatures in parish transfer to Romanian Church are forged

Secretary of the Ungheni and Nisporeni Eparchy Vadim Korostynskyi. Photo: screenshot from a Facebook video

On February 12, 2026, Vadim Korostynskyi, secretary of the Ungheni and Nisporeni Eparchy, said that a court had recognized as forged the signatures in documents concerning the transfer of a parish of the Orthodox Church of Moldova in the village of Derenău into the Bessarabian Metropolis of the Romanian Orthodox Church. A video statement for the media was published on Facebook by the faithful.

According to the eparchy representative, it was the parishioners themselves who initiated the court proceedings and secured a decision in their favor.

The case concerns Priest Florin (Florinele) Marin, who initiated the transfer process. The court found that all signatures used to change jurisdiction were falsified. The priest was fined, which the eparchy says amounts to between 100,000 and 200,000 lei. The court’s decision has already been issued, though the appeal has not yet been heard.

In a comment to journalists, Korostynskyi emphasized that the faithful have been seeking justice in the courts since 2017. “Look at the case materials – and you will see everything. From the very beginning we went to court, expecting that justice would restore fairness for our people. Now it has been established that documents were falsified,” he said. According to him, the community was forced to pray at the church doors while waiting for a lawful decision.

The eparchy also claims that the initiative to transfer was driven not by conviction but by material considerations. As the secretary of the eparchy stated, the priest first looked for an opportunity to join the Baptists, hoping for more favorable conditions, and then accepted an offer from the Bessarabian Metropolis. The eparchy believes the attempted change of jurisdiction was accompanied by violations of the law, which the court of first instance has confirmed.

Because a previous decision of the Ministry of Justice transferring the parish into the jurisdiction of the Bessarabian Metropolis was made on the basis of documents with forged signatures, the Moldovan Metropolis has appealed to the Ministry of Justice demanding restoration of its rights to the church in the village of Derenău.

According to Moldovan media, on the evening of February 12, police who had been on duty at the church left the church in Derenău without explaining why. The faithful entered the church to the sound of the bells.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that on February 8 in Derenău believers were not allowed into the church after a Supreme Court of Justice ruling on property rights in favor of the Bessarabian Metropolis. Services were held outdoors, while police and carabinieri blocked the entrances, and Archbishop Petru of Ungheni and Nisporeni, together with clergy and parishioners, remained blocked inside the church.

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