“Moldovan [Russia] Church Denounces COVID Vaccine as Anti-Christian Plot” screams the headline on an article that Ivan the Liberterrible forwarded. A sub-head adds, 

…the main Church in Moldova has claimed that a vaccine against COVID-19 could allow Microsoft, or other entities, to take remote control of human beings in Moldova and elsewhere.

The story gets better:

The Moldovan Metropolitan Church, the largest faith group in the country, is canonically subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church. Official data say almost 97 per cent of people in Moldova are officially Orthodox Christians, and most of them belong to this denomination.

A survey commissioned by the International Republican Institute in February 2020 said the Church enjoys more trust from citizens in Moldova than any other body.

And even better:

The Church also warned Moldovan Prime Minister Ion Chicu that if he did not lift restrictions on gatherings in churches sooner than the planned date of June 30 he would be struck off the prayer list.

“Otherwise we will take the canonical and moral right to exclude you from remembrance in the Church’s prayers. Do not fight against the Church, for it is Christ who defends it,” the Church said.

Imagine Parson Goat’s chastising godless politicians and bureaucrats! Good gracious, at this point, I’d be happy if he merely declined the stolen loot with which Our Rulers bribe him. His holding their feet to the fire … well, who dares even dream of such a feat? So thank you, Moldovan Metropolitan Church!

Lest our spirits rise too high at the common sense and truthfulness from these brothers in the Lord, Ivan sent another article. This one, about the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole, reports,

Those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 are committing a sin they will have to repent for the rest of their lives. That’s according to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose spokesman said rejecting a jab is selfish.

Speaking to TV channel Russia 24, the head of the Russia Orthodox Church’s Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion, explained that his parishioners regularly repent to him for not being vaccinated. They feel guilty because they passed the virus on to someone else who eventually died, he claimed.

“They come and say, ‘How am I supposed to live with this now?’ And it’s hard for even me to say how to live with it,” he explained. “All your life, you have to make up for the sin you committed.”

“The sin is thinking about yourself instead of thinking about other people,” the metropolitan said. “We are responsible – each of us – not only for ourselves and not only for our loved ones, but also for all those who come into contact with us.”

Ivan responded to this heresy by noting, 

Orthodox hierarchs are not considered infallible. This is Metropolitan Hilarion’s opinion.

And a really bone-headed one, too.

…What the Metropolitan either seems not to grasp, or chooses not to accept, is that each of us is responsible for his own safety – or, as Paul put it, “Each one shall bear his own burden (Galatians 6:5).” What happened to all the magical masks that were supposed to keep other people safe?

This announcement by the Metropolitan is regrettable. I hope the Russian Orthodox laity will think for themselves and not allow their church to turn into an Eastern version of Catholicism.

Yep. One traitor to the Faith is enough.

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