The Patriarch of Romania Visits “Pharos” Publishing House

13/1/2011

On 13 January 2011, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the members of the Standing Meeting of the Church National Council visited “Pharos” Publishing House of the Romanian Patriarchate, situated at Popeşti-Leordeni – informs Trinitas Radio station.

The setting up of “Pharos” Publishing House is a natural result of the development of the missionary cultural catechetical activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church taking into account the dynamics of the religious life during the last few years.

“During his activity in Iaşi, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel was very interested in modernising the printing house at Neamţ Monastery so that very soon His Beatitude received modern printing equipment from Germany which was set up at Golia Monastery. Before leaving from Iaşi, His Beatitude Daniel organised a printing house necessary for publishing “Lumina” newspaper and the “Lumina de duminică” weekly publication, with as modern equipment. After coming to Bucharest in 2007, His Beatitude continued the same activity here, modernising the traditional publishing house of the Archdiocese of Bucharest and of the Bible and Mission Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Soon after his enthronement as Patriarch he set up “Pharos” publishing house, but due to technical reasons concerning the building housing the printing activity as well as the installation of the complex equipment the publishing house could not be inaugurated so far. It is a great achievement, which will sustain many of the initiatives of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. One of them provides the publication, within the Homage Year of the Holy Baptism and Holy Wedding, of a large number of brochures, at a reasonable price, presenting the basic teaching of the Church concerning the Baptism and Wedding as well as many other themes of general interest for all the faithful of our Church, especially for the young people who need, besides the school manuals, other materials in order to get complete knowledge on the teaching of our Church”, said His Grace Varlaam Ploieşteanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch.

The rotary printing press set up here was donated from abroad, but its installation in the hall at Popeşti-Leordeni, as well as the complex arrangements made in view of its good development needed great efforts – informs Trinitas TV channel.

“We visited several places to find an adequate one for a hall to house such a big rotary printing press and everything was done from the scratch. The plot of land and the hall were bought, then arranged for installing the publishing house, getting all the licenses needed”, said Rev. Patriarchal Counsellor Valer Ulican of the Publishing House of the Bible and Orthodox Mission Institute.

Today, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel verified the stage reached for the rotary printing press to operate. So, “Pharos” publishing house will operate rather soon, taking over the printing of “Lumina” daily newspaper of the Romanian Patriarchate.

“We worked day and night and succeeded, with the help of God, in reaching the end. But there are still lots of things to do to have a competing product. We hope to print, with the help of God, books at this rotary printing press, as we have four parts of the machine allotted to books and four to the tabloid format. In fact, today, the first copy of the “Lumina” newspaper was printed in the presence of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel”, said Rev. Patriarchal Counsellor Mihai Hau, of the “Pharos” Printing House of the Romanian Patriarchate.

“Pharos” printing house will be able to print both “Lumina” newspaper of the Romanian Patriarchate and various other publications. The income produced by this activity will be used to support the financial development of the mass media work of the Church. “Pharos” publishing house will also print brochures of spiritual teaching available to the faithful due to the low price of printing.

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