The Church
Presided over by Patriarch Daniel the Romanian Orthodox Church has the majority of Romania's population (16,307,004, or 86.5% of those for whom data were available, according to the 2011 census data), as well as some 720,000 Moldovans belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Romanian Orthodox Church is the second-largest in size behind the Russian Orthodox Church. [1]
In 2010, the Romanian Orthodox Church called on the authorities to build more churches in order to surmount the economic crisis and help believers fight "despair".
"Continuing work on churches under construction and building new ones will help surmount the moral and spiritual crisis, just like the economic and financial one," the Orthodox patriarchy wrote in a press release.
This would "create more jobs and fight individualism, by encouraging solidarity among people, and help believers avoid despair," the Church added.
The statement came after the media criticized the authorities' decision to allocate large sums of money to the construction of churches, while the government plans to slash pensions and wages in the public sector by 15 to 25 percent in order to reduce the deficit.
A recent study shows about 4,000 churches have been built in Romania since the fall of communism in 1989, while the number of schools has been more than halved. [2]
In 2010, the Romanian Orthodox Church called on the authorities to build more churches in order to surmount the economic crisis and help believers fight "despair".
"Continuing work on churches under construction and building new ones will help surmount the moral and spiritual crisis, just like the economic and financial one," the Orthodox patriarchy wrote in a press release.
This would "create more jobs and fight individualism, by encouraging solidarity among people, and help believers avoid despair," the Church added.
The statement came after the media criticized the authorities' decision to allocate large sums of money to the construction of churches, while the government plans to slash pensions and wages in the public sector by 15 to 25 percent in order to reduce the deficit.
A recent study shows about 4,000 churches have been built in Romania since the fall of communism in 1989, while the number of schools has been more than halved. [2]
Why is poverty-stricken Romania building so many churches?
International Business Times wrote: The Eastern European nation of Romania, one of the poorest states in the European Union, takes its religious faith very seriously. An overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox nation (which claims at least 86 percent of the population as adherents), Romania has undertaken an aggressive campaign to build an extraordinary number of churches across the country, regardless of expense.
According to a BBC report, about 10 new churches are built every month in the country – or one every three days -- with a huge cathedral currently under construction in the center of the capital city of Bucharest. When it is finished, the 125-meter (410-foot) Cathedral for the People's Salvation is expected to become the tallest house of worship in southeastern Europe (larger than former Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's massive Palace of the People, which stands next to it). The rapid expansion of churches reflects the resurgence of the Orthodox Church in the country’s political and cultural life, almost 25 years after the fall of the repressive Ceaușescu regime.
However, some in Romania question the wisdom of spending enormous funds from the public treasury to construct so many churches in a nation where one-fifth of the population lives below the poverty line and almost one-fourth of people under 25 are jobless. Moreover, earlier this year, the Social Democratic government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta unveiled a new series of austerity measures, on top of four years of aggressive spending cuts, wage and pension reductions and increasing poverty – all in exchange for a €20 billion ($26.6 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in 2009.
But apparently the Romanian government has not reduced the money it gives to the Orthodox Church. According to reports, state officials hand out more than 100 million euros annually to the church to pay for priest salaries and other expenses, including the renovation of existing church properties and the construction of new churches. Churches also receive funds from local government councils, state-controlled companies and the parishioners themselves. Remus Cernea, head of the country’s Green Party and an MP, complained to the BBC: "In Romania we have a big problem between church and state. My view is that if the church wants to build something it's OK until the money for the building of this church is the money of the people, of the state -- public funds.”
Cernea contends that the church is too closely linked to senior government officials. "In many cases politicians give public funds to churches and in exchange the priests support them in electoral campaigns,” he said. “Often you see the construction companies who build the churches owned by people who are very close to the politicians. So it's a kind of circle of money.”
In addition, the proliferation of churches is particularly perplexing in light of the country’s negative population growth rate (an annual decline of 0.2 percent, said the World Bank).
But perhaps Romania’s recent history explains this frenzy in church-building. Romania’s church hierarchy had a torturous relationship with the Communists. While Ceausescu's Marxist regime damaged and destroyed many churches, many clerics went along with the state in order to avoid purges. In any case, since 1989, after the fall of the Communist regime, the Orthodox Church has enjoyed a huge recovery.
Victor Opaschi, Romania's minister of religious affairs, explained that the government was obligated to return the church to prominence. "The Communists took from the church and it lost nearly all its property," he said. "Now the state is trying to compensate for this by giving back a small proportion of what it has taken." [3]
According to a BBC report, about 10 new churches are built every month in the country – or one every three days -- with a huge cathedral currently under construction in the center of the capital city of Bucharest. When it is finished, the 125-meter (410-foot) Cathedral for the People's Salvation is expected to become the tallest house of worship in southeastern Europe (larger than former Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's massive Palace of the People, which stands next to it). The rapid expansion of churches reflects the resurgence of the Orthodox Church in the country’s political and cultural life, almost 25 years after the fall of the repressive Ceaușescu regime.
However, some in Romania question the wisdom of spending enormous funds from the public treasury to construct so many churches in a nation where one-fifth of the population lives below the poverty line and almost one-fourth of people under 25 are jobless. Moreover, earlier this year, the Social Democratic government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta unveiled a new series of austerity measures, on top of four years of aggressive spending cuts, wage and pension reductions and increasing poverty – all in exchange for a €20 billion ($26.6 billion) loan from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in 2009.
But apparently the Romanian government has not reduced the money it gives to the Orthodox Church. According to reports, state officials hand out more than 100 million euros annually to the church to pay for priest salaries and other expenses, including the renovation of existing church properties and the construction of new churches. Churches also receive funds from local government councils, state-controlled companies and the parishioners themselves. Remus Cernea, head of the country’s Green Party and an MP, complained to the BBC: "In Romania we have a big problem between church and state. My view is that if the church wants to build something it's OK until the money for the building of this church is the money of the people, of the state -- public funds.”
Cernea contends that the church is too closely linked to senior government officials. "In many cases politicians give public funds to churches and in exchange the priests support them in electoral campaigns,” he said. “Often you see the construction companies who build the churches owned by people who are very close to the politicians. So it's a kind of circle of money.”
In addition, the proliferation of churches is particularly perplexing in light of the country’s negative population growth rate (an annual decline of 0.2 percent, said the World Bank).
But perhaps Romania’s recent history explains this frenzy in church-building. Romania’s church hierarchy had a torturous relationship with the Communists. While Ceausescu's Marxist regime damaged and destroyed many churches, many clerics went along with the state in order to avoid purges. In any case, since 1989, after the fall of the Communist regime, the Orthodox Church has enjoyed a huge recovery.
Victor Opaschi, Romania's minister of religious affairs, explained that the government was obligated to return the church to prominence. "The Communists took from the church and it lost nearly all its property," he said. "Now the state is trying to compensate for this by giving back a small proportion of what it has taken." [3]
The church has guaranteed funding from the Romanian Government and has a now contented existence ministering to adherents. Indeed as a homage to God, it is building one of the largest structures in the country. And the money flows...
But is not something amiss?
Is this the original foundational philosophy given some 2000 years ago by a Galilean carpenter. Is this the Church of Jesus Christ? Let us examine.
The Christian creed is based on the central tenets of loving.
Verse 34 - A new commandment: "I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." (John 13:34 English Standard Version - ESV)
But throughout the land children are discarded, the old abused, and the lame ignored. Extreme poverty covers the land. And the church remains silent. And builds more churches. And the money flows...
Central to Christianity is the exhortation to protect the children.
Verse 15 - And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
Verse 16 - But Jesus called them unto him, and said: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16)
But in the Romania of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the children lie alone in their own urine. No-one hears their voice, no-one cares. And the church remains silent. And builds more churches. And the money flows...
Two basic components of 'love' are empathy and compassion. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32) In today’s Romania both are eroded because of the prevalent domestic violence and sexual abuse within households.
Exposure to abuse desensitises and creates aggression which can then be enacted upon members of society. This is known but the church remains silent. And builds more churches. And the money flows...
Where in the space of time was the original message so distorted?
Was it when Irenaeus and Athanasius determined which books would constitute the canon called ‘the Bible’? Or was it when the Romanian Orthodox Church turned its face away and closed its ears to the needs of the people?
It began in a lonely stable behind an inn in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago when the message of love was born in a Jewish rabbi. It now is carried to Halls of Grandeur with ornately dressed 'followers' ignoring all tenets of the Christian Creed in their ignorance of the desperate needs of so many in their land.
One man walking into the Romania of the Orthodox Church, would weep uncontrollably at what he saw. That simple carpenter from many years ago, a man who changed the world with the words he spoke. But in Romania these words are echoes from the past. Unheard, unenacted. They simply remain silent. And build yet more churches. And the money flows...
BUT if a person can not now be empathic, how can they exhibit the central requirement of ALL religions? How can they find God? What has been taken from them by the irresponsibility of governments and organisations?
They simply remain silent. And build yet more churches. And the money flows.
List of References
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Orthodox_Church
2) http://byztex.blogspot.fr/2010/05/romanian-government-to-fund-building-of.html
3) http://www.ibtimes.com/why-poverty-stricken-romania-building-so-many-churches-1375913
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Orthodox_Church
2) http://byztex.blogspot.fr/2010/05/romanian-government-to-fund-building-of.html
3) http://www.ibtimes.com/why-poverty-stricken-romania-building-so-many-churches-1375913