Pastoral Letter

of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church,

on the first Sunday of the Fast of the Nativity of the Lord 2020

Regarding the significance of the HOMAGE YEAR OF THE PASTORAL CARE OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN

and of the COMMEMORATIVE YEAR OF THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX PHILANTHROPISTS,

in the Romanian Patriarchate

TO THE PIOUS MONASTICS, THE MOST REVEREND CLERGY

AND TO THE BELOVED FAITHFUL OF THE ROMANIAN PATRIARCHATE,

Grace, joy, and peace from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

and from us paternal blessings!

Most Reverend Fathers,

Beloved brethren and sisters in the Lord,

Continuing the tradition started in 2008, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed 2020 as the “Homage Year of the Pastoral Care of parents and children” and “Commemorative Year of the Romanian Orthodox Philanthropists” in the Romanian Patriarchate.

The two themes, - homage and commemorative, - highlight two coordinates of a major importance in the life and activity of the Church. On one hand, the homage to the pastoral care of parents and children aims to cultivate the Christian life in the family and promote Christian education in contemporary society; on the other hand, the commemoration of the Romanian Orthodox philanthropists aims to promote Christian philanthropy today, as an essential work in the activity of the Church, which includes the identification of the great philanthropists who, over time, have supported, spiritually and materially, the social-philanthropic activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Esteemed Christian faithful,

In the Christian teaching, the family has always occupied a central place, being the most valuable intimate setting for cultivating marital, parental, filial and fraternal love. Both Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition testify that the family is a blessing and an icon of God’s love for humanity, a sacred space of the work of divine grace, oriented towards life and eternal love.

As a fundamental human institution, the family was created and blessed by God in Heaven, “...Then God blessed them, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it!’” (Genesis 1: 27-28). Also, the family was blessed and honored by the presence of our Savior Jesus Christ at the wedding at Cana of Galilee (John 2: 1-11), where He performed the miracle of turning water into wine, thus showing the sacred value of the conjugal family for the life of the Church.

The family, blessed by God to cultivate mutual love and give birth to children, is a source of holy life for every nation and for all humanity. In the family, the parent-child relationship is understood especially from the perspective of the human relationship with God. Children are not born only for an earthly life, but are also born with the ability to become, through Baptism, sons of God by grace (John 1: 12-13) and to acquire eternal life by faith and good works. It is for this reason that the family was often called a “small church” or “home church” (ecclesia domestica), precisely because of its character as community and the atmosphere of holiness which it must cultivate. In the family, the child learns the meaning of parental love, learns to speak, to pray, learns the faith in God, as well as charity or generosity. St. John Chrysostom reminds us that, in order to be a parent, is not enough to give birth to children, but one must also provide them an education. In this sense, St. John urges “to strive to teach our children virtue and to call upon them God’s blessing, because this is the greatest wealth that increases our daily wealth. Nothing is equal to virtue, nothing is stronger.”[1]

Unfortunately, the mutations and transformations of the last centuries have led to a weakening of the role and the importance of the family in society. In today’s world, parents and children live in a secularized and spiritually confusing reality; they are faced with multiple challenges and crises, such as: poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, infidelity, divorce, insecurity of life, instability and disorientation, alienation, migration, personal conflicts, etc. In this context, in which foreign “models” to Christian values are proposed, it is necessary to strongly affirm the sanctity of marriage, solidarity in and between families, the dignity of motherhood, fatherhood, paternity and fraternity, as gifts of God’s love, which must be cultivated in the communion of love and shared responsibility. Knowing the current challenges facing the Christian family, the Orthodox priests are urged to help personally and to encourage lay people to support materially and spiritually large families, single-parent families or families in difficult situations, including through religious-moral activities for children’s formation in the community. In order to develop a sound education for a blessed life, the Church must first and foremost guide parents to devote more time for the education of children, whereas the character of children is formed not only through words and advices, but also through the personal example of the parents. Clement of Alexandria says that “a happy marriage should be judged neither by wealth nor by beauty, but by virtuous living”[2] i.e. according to the quality of the spiritual life of the family. Parents are called to live a Christian life through prayer and good works, but also to cultivate love and generosity in the family, mirroring the merciful love of the Most Holy Trinity, so that the family may always be a source of love and joy for children. Equally, parents are called to protect life from conception and teach their children to treasure health as a gift from God, which must be defended and cultivated with responsibility.

Beloved faithful,

In 2020, the Romanian Orthodox Church commemorates Romanian Orthodox philanthropists. Among the distinct virtues of the Romanian people, the culture of generosity, dedication or humaneness represents an important legacy of values and norms that shaped the spirituality and culture of the Romanian nation. The fruit of the Gospel of humble and merciful love of Christ in the spirituality of the Romanian people led to the manifestation of love for God and neighbor in concrete forms, expressed either individually and spontaneously, or institutionally and systematically.

The Romanian Orthodox Church gratefully mentions all those who endeavored, throughout history, to develop the Christian culture of generosity. Through such effort, hierarchs, priests and deacons, monks and lay people contributed exemplary to organizing the social-philanthropic work of the Church among the Romanian people. In particular, we evoke the names of some pious and generous Romanian sovereigns, such as: St. Neagoe Basarab (1512-1521), the founder of the infirmary (home for the sick) from the Bistrița Monastery, St. Constantine Brâncoveanu (1688-1714), the founder the infirmary from the Brâncoveni Monastery, the sovereign Grigorie II Ghica, the founder of the hospital of St. Panteleimon Monastery near Bucharest (1757). In Moldova, voivode St. Stephen the Great built the infirmaries of Putna and Pătrăuți, the sovereign Constantin Racoviță Cehan had the initiative to establish the hospitals of St. Prophet Samuel in Focşani and Precista in Roman, and Gregory V founded Galata hospice in Iasi,

all these being administered by some monastic communities.

A valuable philanthropic activity was also carried out by the hierarchs of our Church. In Wallachia, St. Metropolitan Antim Ivirean (1708-1716) stood out in this regard, who, in  Antim Monastery, provided money for the education of poor children, burial of the poor, assistance of the poor, hospitality for strangers, etc.; Metropolitan Gregory II, together with Prince Alexander Ipsilanti, was the founder of the first institution for orphans in Wallachia; St. hierarch Calinic, the abbot of Cernica Monastery (1818-1850) and Bishop of Râmnic (1850-1868), nicknamed by the people “the healer of the sick and the merciful of the poor,” founded the infirmary on the island of Saint George from the Cernica Monastery; Metropolitan Nifon Rusailă (1850-1875) founded the Nifon Seminary in Bucharest, which offered numerous scholarships for poor and eminent students (1875).

Moldova has known a rich charitable activity, especially during Metropolitan Anastasie Crimca, the founder of the Dragomirna infirmary (1602) and a hospital in Suceava (1619), as well as in the time of Metropolitan Veniamin Costachi (1803-1808, 1812-1821, 1823-1842), who bequeathed all his property to be used for philanthropic purposes; also, Metropolitan Iosif Naniescu the Merciful (1875-1902) and Bishop Ioanichie Hasan of Roman (1747-1769), the founder of the hospital near Precista the Great Church. The most important philanthropic hierarch of Transylvania was St. Metropolitan Andrei Saguna (1864-1873), who took constant care in helping the poor and hard-working students. Also, Metropolitan Vasile Lazarescu (1947-1962) contributed substantially at the construction of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Timisoara, provided material aid to Romanians in Bessarabia and Transnistria and financially supported the Romanians oppressed by the communist regime, and the Primate Metropolitan Miron Cristea (1919-1925), the future Patriarch of Romania (1925-1939), initiated the setting up of a seminar for war orphans, in Câmpulung-Muscel

Together with the aforementioned soveriegns and hierarchs, many lay philanthropists stood out over time by generous acts of charity. Among them, worth mentioning are: Mihail Cantacuzino (1640-1716), the founder of the Monastery and the hospital of Bucharest, Safta Brâncoveanu (1776-1857), the founder of Coltea Monastery and the Brâncovenesc hospital from Bucharest; Gheorghe Boldescu (1775-1845) from Ploieşti, Theodor Balș (1790-1867) from Darabani, Moldova, Anastasie Bașotă (1796-1869) from Botoşani, Emanuil Gojdu (1802-1870) from Oradea, Alexandru Mocioni (1841-1909) and Emanuil Ungureanu (1846-1929) from Timişoara, Vasile Stroescu (1845-1926) from Bessarabia, the Golescu Family, Hagi Pop († 1808) and Alexandru Lebu (1835-1918) from Sibiu, Vasile Adamachi (1817-1892) from Iaşi, Stroe Belloescu (1838-1912) from Câmpina, Iorgu Dumitrescu (1851-1934) from Răcari, Teodor Stănescu (1868-1915) from Bucharest, Anastase Simu (1854-1935) from Brăila, Elena Dalles (1849-1921) from Giurgiu, Dumitru Seceleanu (1857- 1932) from Buzau, and many others whose portraits and activities were highlighted during the commemorative year of the Romanian Orthodox philanthropists, both through the reports, documentaries and materials broadcast by TRINITAS Television and Radio or published in the daily religious newspaper Lumina (The Light), as well as in the various commemorative actions organized by the dioceses.

In the twentieth century, in Romania, the institutional philanthropic activity of the Church was brutally interrupted for almost half a century by the installation of the Communist regime (1946-1989), just when the most popular theme was the social assistance. Under communist persecution, the Church was forced to exercises only its sacramental, liturgical and pastoral mission, without being involved in the social-philanthropic activities. Only after 1989, when religious denominations received real freedom of organization and service in the Romanian society, the old philanthropic tradition of the Church was resumed. Today, the Romanian Orthodox Church contributes systematically and substantially to alleviate the suffering of the people, both through the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral work, as well as through the social and philanthropic assistance.

Currently, the Romanian Orthodox Church has one hospital (102 beds, 2 operating rooms, ATI, analysis laboratory), 20 medical and social centers, 55 care service centers and home care, 3 neuromotor recovery centers (ambulatory), 3 palliative care centers, an ambulance service and 49 nursing homes. Thus, the social-philanthropic work of the Church is inspired by the philanthropic, healing, sanctifying and saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ and, at the same time, has a deep pastoral dimension, expressing a working faith through generous love and contributing to the cultivation of communion with God and fellow human beings, that is, to the development of a culture of generosity.

Beloved brethren and sisters in the Lord,

The fast of the Lord’s Nativity, which begins today, is primarily a period of spiritual preparation, of sanctification of our souls and bodies, through Confession and Communion. At the same time, it is an opportunity to help each other through deeds of almsgiving, which are the fruits of the true faith, concrete expressions of our humble love for God and for people.

We are going through an extremely difficult time regarding our health and even our lives and our loved ones. Many Romanians are affected by the new epidemic. Thus, there is a great need for more prayer, solidarity and fraternal help. That is why it is necessary to transform this period of medical crisis into a period of strengthening the faith, through prayer and increasing our love for our fellow human beings through good deeds.

In this sense, we appeal to the priests and believers of our Holy Church with parental exhortation to organize, in parishes, monasteries, deaneries and diocesan centers, to come to the aid of the suffering and deprived, poor families, families with many children, the elderly and single people, without children or relatives, especially those living in rural areas.

With the confidence that you will show Christian generosity again this year and will answer with love to our parental calling in this holy work of charity and help, thank you for the generosity shown in previous years and we remind you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5: 7).

In conclusion, we express our gratitude and appreciation to all who support the pastoral, educational and social-philanthropic activities of the Romanian Orthodox Church, as well as to all merciful and generous Romanian Orthodox faithful. We urge them to continue with great zeal and joy their generous and useful work, to the glory of the Holy Trinity and to the wellbeing of the Romanian people.

With much appreciation, we embrace you and convey to you the apostolic blessing: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all!” (2 Corinthians 13:13).

† D a n i el

Archbishop of Bucharest,

Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrogea,

Locum Tenens of the throne of Caesarea of Cappadocia and

Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

[1] St. John Chrysostom. Homilies on Genesis in PSB collection vol. 22, EIBMBOR: Bucharest 1989, p 329 (in Romanian)

[2] Clement of Alexandria. Stromata 4^th in PSB collectin vol. 5, EIBMBOR: Bucharest 1982, p 290 (in Romanian)