Communist symbols are banned in Moldova

Communist symbols are banned in Moldova.

The Parliament voted in today’s session a law which forbids the symbols of the totalitarian communist regimes condemning the crimes with which they are associated.

After fall of communism, Moldovan Catholic charities thrive

By Victor Gaetan
Catholic News Service

CHISINAU, Moldova (CNS) — As Sister Michelina ladled beans from a food cart onto china plates, she cheerfully recounted how she and Moldova’s only diocese increased a sense of community among the poor elderly who were sharing lunch.

“We made everyone sit down to eat together,” she said. “We forbid people from packing up the meal and leaving.”

She said the rule was necessary especially in a country such as Moldova, where years of oppressive communist rule — and the toll of post-communist poverty — have created deep alienation among the increasingly elderly population.

At the church-run center, the 350 visitors, many chatting and helping each other, have overcome their original preference for fly-by dining.

“Now we see new friendships, laughter, more participation in after-lunch activities. We feel the Holy Spirit,” said Sister Michelina, mother superior of the Providentia order who goes by her first name.

The nun noted that a community does not flower and thrive without care and discipline.

When the Soviets took over this territory from Romania after 1944, it became the Soviet Republic of Moldova. Churches were demolished or used for nonreligious purposes. The Christian communities were destroyed or deported. Priests were jailed, murdered or expelled.

In 1965, the cathedral was converted into a theater and recording studio storage.

“The totalitarian communist regime of the MSSR which committed crimes against humanity is condemned. It is forbidden the use of communist symbols for political and propagandist purposes and the promotion of the totalitarian ideologies,” the recently voted bill shows.

Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR) was the name given by the Soviet Union to a part of Bessarabia from 1940 until the dissolution of the USSR which emerged with the independence in 1991 of the Republic of Moldova.

The Communist symbols are the hammer and sickle. 

The new law was affirmed by a vote of 53 out of 101 deputies. The Communist and Socialist lawmakers voted against the bill.

The Communist Party said they are going to appeal the decision at the Constitutional Court. “We are obligatorily going to appeal the Parliament’s decision at the Constitutional Court,” the head of the Communist Party Vladimir Voronin said. He believes that the newly issued bill was initiated by an outside political force. “I am angry. It has been premeditated. It is their initiative,” the communist leader said, referring to the ruling coalition – the Alliance for European Integration (AEI) – where the initiative came from.

After a majority of lawmakers voted for this law, the Communist deputies left the Parliament as a protest.  MORE AT SOURCE