(LifeSiteNews) — Pro-family activists and the Moldovan church invited journalists to visit the tiny country of Moldova (population 2.4 million) in September to report on egregious persecutions underway there. This reporter discovered rampant civil rights abuses, funded and forced on the unwilling population by the EU. Interviews with priests, activists, lawyers, bishops, monks, and parishioners in the capital, Chisinau, and also in villages, towns and monasteries across Moldova form the basis of this report.

Moldova is mostly agricultural, the second poorest country in Europe (after Ukraine), with an average monthly salary of $600. It is also officially the most Christian country in the world, with 95.2 percent of the population identifying as Orthodox Christian. Due to its history and rural nature, it is also one of the most socially conservative countries in Europe, with the population overwhelmingly opposed to leftist progressive social policies – LGBT, abortion, feminism.

A pro-EU government headed by President Maia Sandu came to power in 2020 resulting in many protests of widespread electoral fraud using mail-in ballots. Nevertheless, according to locals, Sandu immediately began pursuing illegal methods to force pro-LGBT policies on the population. Methods include prohibiting opposition media, physical and electronic surveillance, blackmail, lawfare, arbitrary fines, harassment of priests and activists, prohibitions of free movement across borders, and threats of physical violence from state security agencies.

These measures directly violate the Moldovan and EU constitutions and legislation. Moldova has candidate status to join the EU, yet the EU says nothing about the violations, energetically supporting the progressive government perpetrating them, and generously funding efforts to undermine traditional values in Moldovan society. The EU is also forcing Moldova to legalize same-sex “marriage” and adoption by homosexual couples in order to join the EU, despite the vast majority of the population being against it.

One such example is an attempt to outlaw Moldova’s socially conservative national church, which dates back seven centuries, replacing it with a recently invented, competing liberal jurisdiction (“the Metropolis of Bessarabia”). Church buildings are being fraudulently confiscated, priests intimidated with threats of violence, bribed, and forbidden to engage in public protests. Priests willing to go over to the liberal jurisdiction (the Bessarabian Metropolia), are paid salaries three to four times higher than at the Moldovan churches, with the funding coming from EU sources.

Priests we interviewed explained that because these priests are dependent on the EU for their generous salaries, neither priests nor bishops speak out in any way against abortion or LGBT issues, whereas the Moldovan church is very outspoken against them.

A Moldovan pro-family activist who asked to remain anonymous for fear of government reprisal explained that prior to 2020, citizens opposed to LGBT ideology were free to take part in street protests and voice their views on TV and print media, but since 2021 this has been prohibited. According to him, LGBT ideology is extremely unpopular among the population, resulting, pre-2021, in pride parades consisting of 100-200 people while counter-protests numbered 2,000-3,000 people. The “pride” parades required heavy police protection and often included employees of the American and EU embassies.

Our source described a well-funded soft-power push of the LGBT agenda in schools, the media, films, social media, and advertising. He described how in his son’s kindergarten, a boy voiced his opinion that it was not good for boys to kiss other boys, and for this he was disciplined, with the school calling in the parents.

The traditional Moldovan church continues to be very outspoken against LGBT ideology in sermons, public statements, and social media where they are not censored, and for this they have been forbidden by the authorities to take part in any political activities outside church grounds, and subjected to humiliating harassment, searches and detentions. This reporter spoke at length with Bishop Markell, who implored that word get to U.S. Vice President JD Vance about the gross persecutions underway in Moldova.

Markell has been one of the most outspoken and fiercest critics of the radical progressive social agenda of Sandu’s government and their illegal methods. When asked whether he feared reprisal, he said that he had been subjected to repeated, significant harassment, but that he had no intention of backing off for this would be a betrayal of his faith.

The activist, a middle-aged businessman, described how he too was subjected to hours-long detentions and thorough searches at the border when he travels for work, his suitcases completely dumped out and checked for secret compartments, resulting in hours-long delays causing him to miss his flights. He claims that many people who took part in protests in the past are now declining to do so, fearing reprisals. The few brave souls who show up are subjected to very rough treatment and detention by police, including ripping up posters.

He cited another example of one of his teenage children attending a competitive government-sponsored music camp this summer, with the camp including LGBT teenagers who were clearly below the level of the other children, included for political reasons.

All of the people this reporter interviewed said that the overwhelming majority of the population is against these progressive social policies, but they are being forced on them using police-state tactics last seen under the USSR. (Moldova was part of the USSR until its dissolution.)