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| THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HAS A NEW PATRIARCH(13.09.2007) |
| (2007-09-13) |
| Last updated: 2007-09-17 16:17 EET |
“Daniel is the new Patriarch”, headlines the Bucharest daily Ziua on its front page, after the Metropolitan Bishop of Moldavia and Bukovina was on Wednesday elected the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the majority denomination in Romania. The Church Election College made up of clergy and lay figures, including politicians and influential businesspeople, gave Daniel 95 votes, 29 more than to his main competitor, Bartolomeu, the 80 year old Metropolitan Bishop of Cluj. By traditional standards within the Romanian Orthodox Church, the 56 year old Daniel belongs to a younger generation of clerics.
Born in Banat, in south-western Romania, he became a monk in Moldavia, in the east, and was elected metropolitan bishop as early as the 1990s. Daniel studied theology in Bucharest and in Protestant and Catholic schools in France and Germany. He holds two Ph.Ds and taught for while in Switzerland, rekindling the tradition of scholarly patriarchs initiated by Miron Cristea. A founder of social and theological education institutions, religious publications and the religious radio station Trinitas, Daniel turned the Metropolitan Bishopric of Moldavia into the richest in the country, writes the daily Evenimentul Zilei, as he is also a good manager and communicator. This explains, according to the daily Evenimentul Zilei, why he has been backed by business and political circles. An important detail for a majority Orthodox country recently admitted into the European Union, Daniel is seen by his many supporters as a representative of the reformist and ecumenical wing of Romanian orthodoxy. On the other hand, his adversaries, of whom there are quite a few, describe him as a “mason sold to the Protestant West”. Theologian Radu Preda believes that Daniel will have to sail cautiously between the two currents:
“He will continue, I hope, the ecumenical commitments he has kept all his life and at the same time strike a balance between his theological and pastoral acitvity so that his openness should not collide with various tendencies, especially in the monastic community, which questions the ecumenical openness of the Orthodox Church towards other churches.”
Another lay theologian, Florian Bichir, caustically remarked that “one cannot speak about openness while you have among your clerics priests who believe the Internet is the devil’s tool and that television is Sodom and Gomorrah”. Daniel is the 6th Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church after it became independent, and the first to be elected after the fall of the communist regime. He takes over the controversial inheritance of the former Patriarch Teoctist, who was elected in 1986 and passed away in July at 92, at a time when the Church is the most trusted institution for the Romanian people. However, the Church’s reputation has been affected by its poor involvement in social problems, Teoctist’s indifferent attitude to communist abuses and the collaboration of members of the Electoral Church College, both clergy and lay figures, with the communist regime. One conclusion was offered by the daily Cotidianul: “those who voted for Daniel to become His Beatitude expect reform.”
(Bogdan Matei)
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