Orthodox priest of Raed Arafat: “You do not have the authority to decide on the closing or opening of churches”

Father Marcel Malanca (40 years old) is a priest in Negreşti Oaş, being also the archpriest of this region. He published on his Facebook account a text dedicated to the head of the Department of Emergency Situations, Raed Arafat.

In his message, the father draws the attention of the Secretary of State that he has no right to decide how the Church organizes his activity.

Believers’ participation in services has been banned since March, being one of the first measures taken by the authorities to prevent coronavirus infection. The military ordinance that “closed the churches” has been criticized by the BOR, and lately more and more clerics have called for the reopening of places of worship.

Open letter from Father Marcel Malanca:

„The 5 NO!

1. NO! Mr. Arafat, I can no longer bear to hear you explain to Romanians how to organize your spiritual life, how to maintain this anguish and evident dissatisfaction that exists in the souls of millions of Christians, already at the end of patience, after two months. of psychic violence, to which you must offer solutions, NOT prohibitions!

2. NO! Mr. Arafat, you do not have the necessary authority (you have NOT yet had it) to governregarding the opening or closing of churches. I don’t think anyone has given you the power to “block”. Until now and until the end of the centuries, the priests keep the “keys” (“qui habet aures audiendi, audiat”) DO NOT tempt God!

3) NO! Mr. Arafat, I cannot and do not believe that it is correct to address Christians regarding liturgical and spiritual life. It has a completely different role, a different quality, it has different responsibilities, different tasks. DO NOT worry, Christians have their pastor who can and knows how to speak to them and how to reassure them, because “they know the voice” of the pastor, “after a stranger, they will not go, but will flee from him, because I do not know his voice.”

4. NO! Mr. Arafat, I do NOT consider you disrespectful, on the contrary, I appreciate your dedication and professionalism. But just to keep my esteem and appreciation, I do NOT respectfully ask you to find other formulas and other options to explain to people about the bans. I can give you some advice: use a positive psychology alphabet. I know I abused NO in this article too, but I wanted you to see how even the last sensitive string sounds and vibrates, out of tune, in soul and consciousness, after a NO spoken thousands of times over the two months. , in front of the millions who listened to you. Perhaps from now on they will NOT hear.

5. NO! Mr. Arafat, NO instigation. I ask everyone to be patient, to have faith, to have discernment. DO NOT listen to all the nonsense injected through the disinformation channels. Because I received information with the barrel. They have NOT made us better, unfortunately not smarter or healthier (mentally). This is because power is NOT in the hands of the one who has information, but of the one who has clarity and can discern it (Harrari).
*
P.S.1: You said the church “is one of the areas where older people go, vulnerable people.”
Well … I’m puzzled: don’t vulnerable people also go to maintenance rooms, shops full of customers or by bus? Hm …?!
You do NOT have to explain it.

P.S.2: I am NOT waiting for an answer.
P.S.3: Let’s be patient! … YES

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