Romanian Patriarchate: Church cannot be indifferent to suffering of people it leads to redemption

23/1/2012

The Church cannot be indifferent to the suffering of the people it leads to redemption and urges people to solidarity with the sufferers, hoping to overcome the current crisis, reads a release sent by the press office of the Romanian Patriarchate on Friday.

‘Though autonomous from the State (Romania’s Constitution, Article 29, Paragraph 5) and neutral politically, still the Church cannot be indifferent to the suffering of the people it leads to redemption. Therefore, it must also exercise its vocation as a factor of social peace (the denominations law, Article 7, Paragraph 1) and defender of human dignity when it is humiliated because of social injustice, poverty and helplessness,’ reads the above-mentioned source.

Under these circumstances, ‘as the current situation of deep-going dissatisfaction the Romanian people is in is particularly difficult, as a consequence of the moral and economic crisis in the society, during the future meetings of the National Church Assembly and the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church [BOR] of February 15-16, they will primarily debate how the Church can contribute, in words and deeds, to the change of the current state of crisis of the Romanian society.’

‘As such we think that at these difficult times we must say more prayers, and have more dialogues and cooperation in order to find together practical means to solve the existing problems and to reestablish the confidence in the institutions that are mostly responsible for the life of the Romanian society, especially in the current international context, which is unclear and unstable. In spite of the existing difficulties Christians must cultivate solidarity with sufferers and hope that we can overcome the present-day crisis,’ reads the final part of the release issued by the press office of the Romanian Patriarchate.

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