Cathedral Of The Nation’s Salvation – A Practical Necessity And A Symbol Of The National Dignity

The Press Office of the Romanian Patriarchate, informs us:

The Cathedral Bill (261/2005) stipulates that “the funds assigned to build the Architectural Ensemble of the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation will be provided by the Patriarchate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, by the Romanian Government, within the limits of the amounts allotted every year for this purpose from the budget of the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, as well as by the authorities of the local public administration”. (art. I, paragraph 2). Therefore, according to the legal stipulations in force, the Romanian Government has recently granted to the Romanian Patriarchate a financial support of ten million lei for building the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation for the year 2011. This amount represents only 5% of the amount of 200.000.000 lei ascribed to the execution works for 2011. The money of this governmental support come from the taxes paid to the Romanian state by the Romanian Orthodox faithful, who represent the majority of the Romanian people (87%). The tax and the contributions of the salaries, VAT etc., which will be paid by the Romanian Patriarchate to the Romanian State from the amount of 200.000.000 lei are estimated to about 60.000.000 lei, in 2011.

Following the decision of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church of 6 July 2010, all the religious calendars – 2011, issued by the eparchies of the Romanian Patriarchate in the country and abroad, display the image of the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation as well as the accounts in lei, euro and dollars (USD) the Romanian Patriarchate opened, in which donations can be made by transfer.

During the working session of 16 – 17 February 2011, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church approved the procedure of national fund raising for continuing the construction of the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation within the religious units of the eparchies of the Romanian Patriarchate. So, according to this synodal decree, in order to inform the faithful of the national fund raising for building the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation, an announcement will be posted in every place of worship which will display the image of the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation, the announcement of issuing a receipt no matter the amount, the type of receipt and the bank accounts in which the natural and legal persons can make donations by transfer.

The donations for the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation can be made at parishes, monasteries and sketes only to the clergy employed at the respective religious units. The donors will receive a personalised receipt for the amount donated from the receipt books provided by the Romanian Patriarchate through the eparchial centres, according to the number of the religious units subordinated. Then, every eparchy will convey, through the deaneries in jurisdiction, the receipts books to every parish and monastery.

Every month, the deaneries will make an electronic centralisation – based on certain reports – of the receipts the religious units in the territory issued and will send them to the eparhial centres together with the amounts raised.

The eparchies, in their turn, will centralise electronically the reports and the receipts received from all the religious units in the jurisdiction, while the respective amounts will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of the Romanian Patriarchate designed to the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation. The centralisation will be presented to the Romanian Patriarchate together with the bank payment order.

The information and documents necessary to be registered in the bookkeeping of the Romanian Patriarchate will be made during the present month for the previous month.

The donors can cheque any receipt by calling the telephone number: 021 406 71 82 or at the email address: contabilitate@patriarhia.ro.

The list of the founders of the Cathedral published on site www.catedralaneamului.ro will mention the names of the donors only with their own agreement.

Taking into account the fact that during the first Sundays of the Lent (which begins on 7 March 2011) all the parishes and monasteries of the Romanian Patriarchate will organise fund raising for the Central Missionary Fund assigned to help especially the Romanian Orthodox poor communities in the country and abroad, the national fund raising for building the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation will begin after the feast of the Holy Easter (24 April 2011).

In order to avoid frauds, the Romanian Patriarchate does not authorise anybody to ask for money for the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation in public spaces, at the houses of the faithful or seats of the state public institutions or of the private firms. At the same time, as a result of some notifications received, the Romanian Patriarchate rejects the attempts of certain commercial societies to use the donations for the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation as pretext for not paying their debts to other legal persons.

We remind those who still oppose the building of the future Patriarchal Cathedral through tardy lamentations, although at the beginning of September 2010 the building license was issued, and the construction has already begun, that its raising is a practical liturgical and missionary necessity and, so, an immediate responsibility of the Romanian Patriarchate.

The Romanian Orthodox Church is the only one of the Orthodox Churches with no cathedral representative for the faith and dignity of her people.

The Romanian Patriarchate thanks all those who have supported it to continue to fight for building the Cathedral of the Nation’s Salvation and especially the clergy and faithful who contributed or contribute financially for raising it, praying the Merciful God to give them all good health, salvation, joy and much help in life.

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