The disruption of the trip of Archbishop Markel of Balti and Falesti to Jerusalem for the Holy Fire on the eve of Easter is an arbitrary act on the part of the Moldovan authorities, a Hierarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church, Archbishop Theodosius of Sebastia, told Sputnik.
"This is an arbitrariness that deserves condemnation. We have learned this painful and shocking news, which testifies to the arbitrariness against the Orthodox Church in Moldova for incomprehensible reasons that cannot be justified in any way," the archbishop said.
Such treatment of Archbishop Markel is unacceptable, he noted.