(Radio Free Europe, www.rferl.org, 26. Juni 2022) Romania is considering a bill that would ban minors from being exposed to so-called "gay propaganda" in schools and in public life, despite warnings from rights groups that it would "fuel Russian propaganda and disinformation campaigns" and reinstate censorship in the former communist country. Seven lawmakers from the ethnic Hungarian UDMR, a junior ruling coalition party, initiated the bill under the guise of preventing child abuse and promotin…

In a message on Monday, May 9, 2022, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel urged believers to participate in Romania’s Census of Population and Housing and to declare their religious affiliation. "This year's census is a proper time to confess our religious identity" - full text: The organisation of the Romanian Population and Housing Census in the first half of 2022 is not only a process of updating the administrative data and statistics of the population and housing in Romania (information that th…

Against the dramatic background of the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the humanitarian catastrophe it has caused, the Romanian Orthodox Church has been mobilized since the early days of this conflict unleashed by Russia against an independent and sovereign country, providing considerable aid to Ukrainian refugees who arrived on the territory of Romania, in the Republic of Moldova, as well as citizens remaining in Ukraine. Thus, the dioceses on Romania’s border with Ukraine, the Metropolis of Be…

In Rumänien können die Steuerzahler bis zu 3,5 Prozent der Einkommenssteuer für gemeinnützige bzw. soziale Zwecke direkt widmen. Die Rumänische Orthodoxe Kirche wirbt deshalb aktuell massiv dafür, dies zugunsten der neuen Bukarester "Kathedrale zur Erlösung des Volkes" zu tun, wie der "Pro Oriente"-Informationsdienst am Freitag berichtete. Die Kathedrale ist eine der größten orthodoxen Kirchen der Welt und wurde im Herbst 2018 eingeweiht, ist aber noch nicht zur Gänze fertiggestellt. Papst Fran…

Through “Filantropia” Federation and “Diaconia” Social Mission, the Romanian Orthodox Church is carrying out a pilot project entitled “Eco-initiatives in the parishes of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Romania and the Republic of Moldova.” The project is carried out in partnership with Caritas Ambrosiana, an NGO in Milan, Italy. The project is the first of its kind and aims to initiate an environmental education and identify solutions to increase environmental responsibility at the level o…

Please find below the precise point of view of the Romanian Patriarchate on the EU digital COVID certificate, which was briefly expressed at the meeting of representatives of religious denominations with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health of the Romanian Government at the Coral Temple in Bucharest on December 2, 2021. On November 12, 2021, the Romanian Patriarchate requested the Chamber of Deputies not to introduce the obligation of the EU digital COVID certificate for clergy or beli…

In response to being presented on 2 December, on behalf of President of Romania Klaus Iohannis, with the ‘Greater Union Centennial’ medal for the involvement of the Church in promoting national memory and values, Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church said that the distinction is a sign of the esteem in which the head of the state holds the Romanian Orthodox Church. “It is a joy that the contribution of the Romanian Orthodox Church over the centuries to the preservation and cultivatio…

Angesichts dramatisch steigender Corona-Fallzahlen in Rumänien haben mehrere Bischöfe der Rumänischen Orthodoxen Kirche (RumOK) zu Gebeten, zur Einhaltung der Hygienemaßnahmen und gegenseitiger Unterstützung aufgerufen. Patriarch Daniel appellierte an die Gläubigen, die Regeln zum Schutz der Gesundheit zu beachten. Denn wer sein Leben auf der Erde gefährde, riskiere, seine Rettung zu gefährden, erklärte er beim Gottesdienst zur Feier des Hl. Demetrius am 27. Oktober, eines der Schutzpatrone der…

Am Dankgottesdienst zum 14. Jahrestag seiner Inthronisation hat der rumänische Patriarch Daniel erklärt, es komme „nicht so sehr auf die Zahl der Jahre an“, sondern darauf, die Zeit zur Verehrung Gottes und dem Helfen zu verwenden. Er dankte Gott für die Arbeit der Kirche, die nicht er allein, sondern gemeinsam mit den Geistlichen und Laien sowie Kircheninstitutionen geleistet habe, aber auch in Zusammenarbeit mit staatlichen Institutionen. Patriarch Daniel wurde am 30. September 2007 inthronis…