Romanian Orthodox Church faces criticism after tragic baptism

In Romania a six week old infant boy recently died shortly after being baptized. Authorities believe the death was directly related to his being baptized by full immersion according to the immemorial rite of the Orthodox Church. The tragedy, not surprisingly, has caused a firestorm of commentary including criticism of the Church's baptismal rite. 

Romania is generally regarded as one of Europe's most religiously observant countries with a little over 80% identifying as members of the Orthodox Church, around 7% as Catholics (mostly Latin Rite but a small number of Eastern Rite), and approximately 5% self identify as some form of Protestant. Somewhere around 2-3% are Muslims or Jews with the rest being either non-believers or having no formally expressed religious beliefs in the latest census. 

Patriarch of Romania: If we continue with abortion, we will perish as a nation

During his homily on the Feast of the Annunciation, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel stressed that the Mother of God is the Protrectress of all mothers and warned that if abortions continue to take place in Romania ‘we will perish as a nation’.

‘If we, the Romanian people, continue with (performing) abortions, which sum up to millions from 1960 until present, we will perish as a nation. We are in a demographic decline,’ His Beatitude said Monday.

The Patriarch of Romania presided over the Divine Liturgy celebrated on the Annunciation of the Theotokos at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest.

Concelebrant for the Divine Liturgy was His Beatitude’s patriarchal auxiliary bishop Varlaam of Ploiesti, chief secretary of the Holy Synod. March for Life

In his homily, the Patriarch referred to the March for Life, which ‘has become very popular’, being organized at the beginning of March for a few years.

‘Last Saturday we were very happy to see the March for Life taking place. The people taking part in this pro-life manifestation that shows support to pregnant women are mostly young people, but also old people.’

‘First of all the March for Life has a spiritual aspect, since abortion in Church canon law is called infanticide, but also has a social aspect, since fewer and fewer children are born,’ he said March 25. The Theotokos helps pro-life activists

Patriarch Daniel spoke about the help offered by the Mother of God to all those who give birth to children and bring them up.

‘The Mother of God is a Protectress of women who give birth to children, who become mothers, a Protectress of the children’s parents, and a Protectress of childless families who adopt and bring up children.’

Every child is a potential Saint, the Patriarch noted. Children are ‘not only citizens of their earthly homeland, but also of the heavenly homeland.’

The Patriarch offered the example of Saint Gregory Palamas, celebrated on the Second Sunday of Great Lent, who is considered ‘the theologian of uncreated and unfading light and glory in the Kingdom of Heaven.’

‘Few know that this Saint was born in a well-believing family, and therefore the Church included not only him among the Saints, but also his father, mother and two sisters.’

‘So, from a three-child family, all three children became Saints, as well as their parents who gave birth to them.’

Read the rest here.

AXIOS!

Baptist claiming trademark on name/image of Elder Arsenie wields law against Orthodox Church

A bizarre legal battle is playing out in Romania right now, as the Romanian Orthodox Church is fighting for the right to use the name and image of Elder Arsenie (Boca), a faithful son of the Church, against a private individual who owns the right to use the elder’s name and image that were trademarked with the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

Elder Arsenie, who reposed in 1989, was one of the great Romanian spiritual fathers of Communist times, and is revered today as a saint, although he has yet to be canonized. Thousands go on pilgrimage annually to his grave at Prislop Moanstery in Silvașu de Sus, and images of him are seen as a blessing.

At least one such image, bought at Prislop Moanstery, began miraculously weeping in May 2015. A miracle is known to occur at his grave as well: Even though the temperatures there can be extremely low, often reaching -5 degrees, all of the flowers that have grown on his grave neither wither nor freeze and die by the extreme temperatures but instead remain in full blossom. From winter to summer, the elder’s grave remains full with blossomed, multi-colored fragrant flowers.

But now those beloved images are being confiscated by the police, Balkan Insight reports.

Police have been called to the monastery twice this year, and also to a shop in the western city of Arad in May. Daniel Gheorge, one of the two owners of the Fr. Arsenie trademark, complained to police that the monastery and shop were selling images of Fr. Arsenie without the proper license.

Through his lawyer, Gheorge has made more than 100 complaints against churches and stores.

Read the rest here.

Orthodox Religion, Unorthodox Medicine: The Rise of Romania’s Christian Doctors

A new breed of Romanian doctors wants to place faith at the heart of their practice, alarming those who believe religion and medicine do not mix.

Cardiologist Ciprian Fisca barely got any sleep on last night’s shift, and his next one starts early tomorrow morning.

But right now, eight hours before he returns to hospital, there is nowhere he would rather be than in the kitchen of a religious retreat, deep in rural Transylvania, peeling horse-radishes.

The 27-year-old is volunteering his services as a kitchen-hand in the isolated retreat of St John the Evangelist, helping the priests with tomorrow’s meal. Among the small group assisting with the catering are a pharmacy student and Ciprian’s younger sister, who hopes to study medicine herself.

The retreat consists of a modest church surrounded by modern-looking buildings currently under construction, including a canteen, conference centre and accommodation facilities.

The transformation of this remote site hints at the revival of the Romanian Orthodox Church, flexing its muscles after half a century of communist dictatorship.

Once associated with the elderly and the rural poor, the Church now attracts educated youth in the cities, including a conspicuous following of doctors and medical students.

Read the rest here.

Romania and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem restore communion

Details can be found on Byzantine Texas. Glory to God!

Romanian Church Reconciles with Jerusalem Patriarchate

A schism that should never have been and which makes us look silly if not downright petty has been resolved, praise God. See here for details.

Romanian Orthodox church in Jerusalem attacked

Police said unknown assailants on Monday threw stones, bottles and garbage at the door of a church in Jerusalem, in the third attack against Christian sites in Israel in recent weeks.

Police spokesperson Luba Samri told AFP nobody was injured in the attack on the Romanian Orthodox church, St George's, but that the door was damaged. Police were investigating, she added.

The church is located near a Jewish ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.

Read the rest here.

A Romanian Christmas Carol

"From heavenly skies, I hear the songs divine,

"The three Magi, with presents to take,

to the frail body of our Savior..."

OK the Romanians are wrong

I have been waiting to get the other side of the story in the ecclesial hissy fit between the Jerusalem Patriarchate and the Romanian Orthodox Church (see here) before drawing any conclusions.  That now appears to have been offered, and I have to say it does not look good for the Romanians (see Byzantine Texas for the details).  The whole thing is rather wordy and it wanders a lot.  But buried in the text is their argument in a single sentences.

“Due to pastoral-missionary reasons one can make derogation from the canons, because the canons are not dogmas, but pastoral rules.

This is of course absolutely true. It is called economy or oikonomia. Bishops can indeed suspend some church disciplines for a good reason... WITHIN THEIR JURISDICTION. 

Look I am no canon lawyer (do we even have such a thing?). But even I know you can't announce you are suspending the law in a place where you have no jurisdiction. No Romanian bishop has jurisdiction in the JP's territory, unless the JP's Synod says so, and clearly they haven't.  Neither can all of the Romanian bishops together suspend church law in a place where they have no jurisdiction.

That is the bottom line.  Everything else is just word games.  The Romanian Church is simply wrong here.  They need to man up and admit they overstepped their authority, apologize and ask politely for permission to establish a representation parish for the benefit of Romanian pilgrims.  That should solve the problem.

Jerusalem Patriarchate severs communion with Romanian Orthodox Church

Mystagogy reports...

The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem met on Monday 9 May 2011 regarding the resolution of the anti-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Romania, which has built a church and hostel in Jericho without their permission.

The Holy Synod of Jerusalem, after an in-depth investigation, regretably decided to sever communion with the Patriarchate of Romania and crossed Patriarch Daniel out of the dyptychs.

In the 1990's during the days of Patriarch Diodoros of Jerusalem and Teoctist of Romania a church and hostel was being built by Romanians in Jericho without permission from the Jerusalem Patriarchate. The Patriarchate of Jerusalem protested these actions, but the Romanian Church continued the unlicensed building project, and today the church is even functioning liturgically.

It should be noted that despite the interruption of ecclesiastical communion, Romanian pilgrims are welcomed to visit the Holy Land and the Monasteries of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

HT: Dr. Tighe

Some quick points...

• The original source for this is Greek.  I'm not saying that the report is in anyway inaccurate, just bear in mind that we are only getting one side of the story right now.
• It is not at all unusual for autocephalous churches to have "representation" parishes in the canonical territory of other churches to serve their own nationals and also act as a sort of ecclesiastical embassy.  The Russian Church has some in the United States with the full agreement of the OCA and I understand that there are some in Constantinople with the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.  There is also an OCA  representation parish in Moscow.
• This however is allegedly being done without the permission of the JP.  If true, that is a no-no and a potentially serious breach of church canons.
• These sorts of ecclesialogical hissy fits are not all that unusual.  Every now and then one church will do something stupid or deliberately step on the toes of one of the others and the result is a (usually) short lived mini-schism.  There was one between the Russian Church and the EP some years ago.  It was short lived, though I hasten to note that relations between Moscow and the EP have occasionally been strained in recent times.
• Finally it sounds like the JP is wisely limiting this to clergy concelebration for now and have indicated that they are not excommunicating all Romanians in their territory.

Corul Sfintei Manastiri Camarzani - Pruncul Imparat

A New Saint: Blessed Irodion of Lainici is Glorified

The glorification of St. Irodion of Lainici in Romania. Read the story at Mystagogy.

Holy Saint Irodian pray for us!

The Tears of Holy Mary

Most Holy Mother, through your sorrowful tears we have been interceded. Grant us the same sorrow that when you saw your Son we may also weep for Him who is pure Love.

Romanian Monks During Holy Week

Romanian Orthodox Christmas Carol - Din cer senin

"From heavenly skies, I hear the songs divine,

The three Magi, with presents to take,

to the frail body of our Savior..."

Some Romanian Churches

Source with captions (Click on images for full size)

An update on the Romanian Ortho-Cath concelebration

Word via Carlos Antonio Palad that the Orthodox participant in this affair, Fr. Daniel Crecan has been deposed by his bishop.

Monasteries from Orthodox Romania

Double click on video for full screen.

A report of Orthodox - Catholic concelebration and intercommunion

Via Carlos Antonio Palad at Rorate Caeli

Romanian "visionary" Vassula Ryden, a long time promoter of communio in sacris between Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, is now reporting a Divine Liturgy concelebrated by a Romanian Orthodox priest and a Roman Catholic priest. Communion was knowingly given to Catholics. It is claimed that this has occurred with the blessing of Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu, who famously took communion from Uniate clergy in 2008.

See Rorate for the details.

A clarification: Carlos has posted the following...
Just to clarify: the report by Vassula (who is Greek, born in Egypt) claims that Met. Nicolae supported her Mission trip. However, there is no mention on whether he also blessed the concelebration.

The New York Times: Deep in the Carpathians, Painted Parables

The painted church at the Monastery of Voronet, in the Bucovina region of Romania, dates back to 1488, and the reign of Stephen the Great.

WHEN the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great won his first decisive victory against the Turks five and a quarter centuries ago, he decided to mark the occasion with a grand monastery and adorn its walls with the colorful work of artisans of the day. With his second victory came another monastery. With the third, yet another.

The result of his victories — 46 in all — was an unprecedented building spree within the densely forested terrain of the Bucovina region in modern Romania. The tradition was embraced by his son and successor, Petru Rares, and their vassals. Many of the mural-covered monasteries and churches survive, nestled in a valley, having withstood the withering summer sun and winter winds for centuries. What started out as Stephen the Great’s war trophies have become some of the world’s most stunning works of art.

They exist now as the present-day Monastery of Voronet, about three miles south of the Romanian village of Gura Humorului, and its sister sanctuaries, scattered within a radius of some 25 miles and collectively recognized as Unesco World Heritage sites.

Read the rest here.