Right to reply: Nostalgia over the communist control over the religious Cults?

15-08-2010

The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate, informs us:

We give the following explanations related to the article entitled The Orthodox Church, a business out of the state control – published on the site of the REALITATEA TV site – in which simplistic tendentious interpretations are made concerning the income supporting the multiple activities of the Romanian Orthodox Church:

1. During the communist regime in Romania, the mentality of the authorities, present at the legislative level too, stipulated that the State had to exert guidance, supervision and control over the activity of the religious cults. The title of the article on REALITATEA TV site gives the impression that the author feels the nostalgia of the State control over the religious cults and of reducing their role in society, according to the communist pattern.

Yet, the present Romanian Constitution stipulates the autonomy of the religious cults and the State’s co-operation with these cults. So, according to article 29, paragraph 5 – The religious cults are autonomous towards the State, and enjoy its support, as well as for facilitating the religious assistance in the army, hospitals, prisons, old people’s homes and orphanages. The principle of co-operation between the State and religious cults was therefore developed in the Bill for the religious cults no. 489/2006, which reads: the Romanian State recognises the spiritual, educational, social-charitable, cultural role of the religious cults, and of social partner too, as well as their statutes of factors of the social peace (article 7, paragraph 1); the public authorities co-operate with the religious cults in the fields of common interest and support their activity (article 9, paragraph 3).

2. After almost fifty years of atheist communism, when she was obligated to diminish drastically her missionary, social-charitable and cultural-educational activity, from 1990 forward, the Romanian Orthodox Church has had the possibility to accomplish her mission in freedom and engage in solving some of the issues of the Romanian contemporary society. In this sense, in order to support the many projects and pastoral-missionary, social-charitable, cultural-educational programmes, besides the generosity of some sponsors and the financial support granted by the State, the Church had to identify some other sources of income too, for sustaining and developing her more and more numerous activities, according to the principle the economic supports the spiritual, and the spiritual confirms the honest fair economic. We mention the fact that having been autocephalous, with the leadership centre in Romania, supporting the national identity and unity, the Romanian Orthodox Church is not supported financially or politically by any religious denomination or Christian organisation from abroad, unlike other religious cults from Romania. This accounts, to a great extent, for the fact that she is permanently the target of the attacks ordered in the Romanian press.

Therefore, the income the eparchies of the Romanian Orthodox Church get using their own resources and unfolding some economical activities support a series of pastoral-spiritual, theological, social-charitable, cultural-educational programmes, and the poor monasteries and sketes, as well as many church institutions, most of them set up after 1990.

During the last 20 years, the Romanian Orthodox Church could set up social settlements and organise social-charitable programmes unheard of before. So, at present, 394 social-charitable settlements operate within the Romanian Patriarchate, out of which: 88 for children, 89 for aged people, 65 centres for assisting the families and persons in distress, 92 social canteens and bakeries, 25 social-medical centres and policlinics, 14 centres of diagnosis and treatment for persons with special needs, 6 centres for homeless people, 4 centres for the victims of the violence in the family and aggressors, 2 centres for the victims of the trafficking in persons, 9 kindergartens and educational centres etc. In 2009, over 629.000 persons in distress benefited of the social services and projects unfolded in eparchies (335 social programmes).

In 2009, almost an amount of 45.000.000 lei was spent for supporting the social-charitable activity, the persons assisted and the victims of natural scourges.

So, the “incomes” of the Romanian Orthodox Church coming from the contributions of the faithful, from various economical activities and partially from the State budget, are not used for making anybody rich, but for supporting the church institutions and the many social cultural activities she unfolds, because she thinks it is more correct and dignified to earn money through honest work than through fraudulent, not deserved gains.

At the same time, the efficient economical administrative activity represents an example of education through diligence and generosity. It is only in this way that we can get rid of inferiority complexes, of lamentation that we are poor and of envying the diligent generous ones. In other words, in order to get rid of the money crisis, economical development is needed. So, we must not envy the Church if she succeeds in organising herself better, but develop the entire national economy with maxim responsibility.

3. As for the BASILICA Press Centre – made up of TRINITAS Radio station, TRINITAS TV station, Lumina publications (daily, weekly and monthly issues), BASILICA news agency and the Press Office – it has a cultural-missionary character, not a commercial one. This is why when choosing its name, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel opted for defining it as a press centre, better suited with its statutes, identity and purpose, avoiding the name trust which has a commercial connotation, in general.

TRINITAS Radio station, TRINITAS TV station and LUMINA publications are financially supported by the Romanian Patriarchate, by the Archdiocese of Bucharest, by some other eparchies, deaneries, parishes, monasteries and by a few sponsors willing to support the social and cultural-missionary activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. All these contributions are registered every month, in a transparent way, and can be found in the bookkeeping both of every parish or eparchy and that of the radio, television and newspaper. The financial contribution acquired as such is used for supporting the infrastructure needed for the good operation of the BASILICA Press Centre, as well as for providing the very modest wages of the employees and of the collaborators, for paying the fees and social contribution. Unlike REALITATEA – CATAVENCU Press Trust, whose shares and sources of financing are suspected of lack of transparency, according to mass media, BASILICA Press Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate has manifested complete transparency regarding its sources of support ever since the moment it was set up (October 2007).

Those who support the activity of BASILICA Press Centre are also the main beneficiaries. The parishes, which financially support the activity of the radio, television and daily newspaper, have the chance to make their activities known by these means of communication of the Romanian Patriarchate, because the commercial press usually ignores this activity. BASILICA Press Centre also grants direct support to the parish priests’ activity by issuing catechistic programmes, as well as informative reports designed to provide the spiritual instruction of the Romanian Orthodox faithful in the country and in the Romanian Diaspora, too. Therefore, the fact that the Romanian Patriarchate is considered a “press mogul” is unjust and offensive for all the supporters of BASILICA Press Centre.

4. According to the Holy Scripture and to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the spiritual life should not be opposed to or separated from the correct efficient administration of the church assets. For example, Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea (+379), has never separated the Liturgy from charity, but used the material assets for spiritual and social-charitable works, urging the rich to be generous and sustain the Church activity.

The fact that the Church uses her material incomes to support her pastoral-missionary, social-charitable and cultural-educational work must be appreciated and promoted not criticised and envied. For example, the Divine Liturgy and the Vesper service reach the houses of the faithful every day and contribute to the consolidation of their communion with Christ and His Church through the Trinitas radio and television stations of the Romanian Patriarchate, which are means of mass communication with special missionary impact, financially supported by parishes and monasteries, not by paid advertising. At the same time, the presentation and explication of the Gospel pericope and of the daily apostle on Trinitas radio station and in the daily Lumina newspaper helps the faithful to strengthen their faith and urges them to good deeds, not to social partial feud. All these media programmes help a lot the pastoral-missionary activity of the Church and promotes the light in the people, so that they must be supported from a financial point of view.

Orthodoxy does not oppose spirit to matter in a Manichean way, but makes the matter the epiphany of the spirit, which consecrates the material assets as divine gifts that must be cultivated for the glory of God – the Giver and for the people’s salvation. Therefore, the true Church does not accumulate money or material assets to enrich herself, but changes them into means of supporting her spiritual work for the welfare of society and the salvation of the faithful.

In conclusion, the fabrications and hyperbolic vision of the author of the article on REALITATEA TV site are ridiculous when referring to the way of organisation, operating and supporting the activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The author proves ignorance in the financial autonomy of the Orthodox units of religious cult (parish, monastery, deanery, eparchy, patriarchate) and is focused only on creating feud between State and Church on the backdrop of the present economical and financial crisis. Yet, he overlooks the fact that it was not the Church who caused the present crisis, which she must face together with all the Romanian people.

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