MAY 30, 2021 - DAY OF ROMANIANS ACROSS THE WORLD[*]

Christ is risen!

According to Law no. 101/2015, at the request of several Romanians abroad, the Day of Romanians across the world is celebrated on the last Sunday of May. In 2021, this Sunday is celebrated on May 30.

The Day of Romanians across the world is a special day, having a strong spiritual significance, of reaffirming the traditions and values ​​of the faith and culture of the Romanian people.

Therefore, the Romanian Patriarchate addresses a message of unity and brotherhood, of communion and solidarity to all Romanians everywhere.

This year, 2021, declared by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church as the Homage Year of the pastoral care for the Romanian abroad, our word of appreciation and spiritual strengthening addressed to all Romanian Orthodox believers far from the home country has a special significance.

The pastoral care and the increased attention shown by the Romanian Patriarchate towards the Romanian Orthodox abroad materialized, in the last decade, by the establishment of numerous new parishes and dioceses, which meet the spiritual needs of the Romanian Orthodox believers around the current borders of Romania (Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary), of Romanians from Western Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as from the Holy Land, Cyprus, Turkey, South Africa and Japan.

Through its hierarchs and priests, the Mother Church blesses and encourages her spiritual sons and daughters abroad and, at the same time, finds out the problems they face, in their aspiration for a better future. Therefore, in the Romanian Orthodox churches everywhere, Romanians feel the joy of rediscovering and living the ancestral faith, participate in the liturgical life, alleviate their fervent longing for loved ones and birthplaces and reaffirm their deep ethnic identity. Through their participation in liturgical life, cultural events and social-philanthropic actions organized by parishes in the Romanian diaspora, the permanent values ​​of the Orthodox faith and Romanian culture are promoted, Romanian traditions are transmitted, and the Romanian language is cultivated, all contributing to the preservation the cultural, ethnic and ecclesiastical identity of Orthodox Romanians outside Romania.

The contribution of the Romanian Orthodox Church, together with the State authorities of Romania, in preserving and cultivating the Romanian identity is also meant to support the social integration of Romanians in the host countries, without cultural assimilation and without denationalization. In this sense, a harmonious coexistence of Romanians everywhere with the citizens of the countries where they currently live is cultivated, especially now when, in some places in the world, the medical, moral, spiritual and economic crisis is sometimes manifested by social tensions which can degenerate into interethnic and interreligious conflicts.

On the occasion of the Day of Romanians across the world, with much brotherly and fatherly love, we urge all Romanians living outside Romania to be permanently in touch with their loved ones left in the home country, in order to preserve the unity of the Romanian family and communion.

With much appreciation and fatherly blessing,

† DANIEL

Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

_________

[*]The message of His Beatitude DANIEL, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, on the occasion of Day of Romanians across the world, May 30, 2021.