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The president of the PNL, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, declared this Monday that the pilgrimage to San Dumitru in Bucharest will not be possible. The announcement comes after authorities canceled the pilgrimage to Santa Parascheva in Iasi.
“I am a believer, who respects the church, I have always been with the projects of the churches in general. On the other hand, the risk is very high, think about the following aspect: many of the believers who participate in these religious festivals.In these pilgrimages there are elderly people who are exposed to very high risks, you know how it works: in the parishes there are travel by bus, by minibus in conditions that we cannot control, the risk of contagion exists while there are trips.After all, it is very difficult to ensure the conditions of physical distancing and the protection of people’s health, in addition to certain things happening that can endanger the lives of believers. I am convinced that in the Orthodox Church there is also understanding for this decision of ours and I ask the faithful to understand that we have done it only to protect health ”, explained Or ban, at the headquarters of NLP.
The reaction of the Romanian Patriarchate
The Romanian Patriarchate spokesman, Vasile Bănescu, reacted on Monday to the announcement made by Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, claiming that the lack of inter-institutional dialogue in such situations “denounces an excessive superior contempt for social reality.”
“Negative exercises of imagination at the highest level on the behavior of believers (declared a priori suspects), the organizational capacity of the Church (otherwise an exemplary social interlocutor of the authorities) and the importance of the presence and manifestation of religion in society can be really offensive. The lack of inter-institutional dialogue, of co-option in the reflection on decisions of greater public impact in matters of suspension, even temporarily, of fundamental freedoms, such as religious freedom, of experts in conjunctural spheres of politics and public health, denounces a excessive superior contempt. compared to immediate social reality “, It is shown in a statement signed by Vasile Bănescu.
According to the Patriarchate, the immediate social reality is “much more complex than it seems to those who believe that it can be changed at any time and with the consequences.”
“The community organism functions naturally only in a state of equilibrium that arises from the discernment and dialogue for which the Church constantly advocates. Regarding the observance of all sanitary norms now imposed. Arrogance, decisional autarky and moral solipsism They have not honored and will never honor The rigorously organized pilgrimage, under exceptional conditions of observance of drastically applied rules and whose (now imaginary) violation can be sanctioned at any time by the authorities, is not only one of the profound expressions of responsible religious freedom Rather, in the current context, and a beneficial form of trust and respect for most of the good and faithful people of this country. “, is shown in the cited statement.
On October 26, Orthodox believers celebrate Saint Demetrius, the Fountain of Myrrh, and on October 27, Dimitrie the New, the patron saint of Bucharest.
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban’s announcement comes after the authorities also canceled the pilgrimage to Saint Parascheva, in Iasi, held on October 14.
