Romania set an Oct. 6-7 date for a referendum to change the constitutional definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman, PM Viorica Dancila announced during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. A group called Coalition for the Family has collected 3 million signatures in favor of the change. The lower house…
Metropolitan Laurenţiu of Transylvania has urged believers of all confessions to attend the referendum for the definition of marriage, Agerpres reported. The referendum, scheduled for October 7, aims to change the definition of marriage in the Constitution from the current marriage between spouses to the marriage between a man and a woman. The metropolitan argued that turnout…
A monument to Romanian national heroes was consecrated on Friday at the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Brusturi commune in northwestern Romania, where 14,000 Romanian, Russian, and German soldiers died in one night during World War II. The service was celebrated by His Grace Bishop Macarie of Northern Europe after the…
Orthodoxy has become the second biggest religion in majority-Catholic Austria, reports Der Standard. While intense debate is underway in Austria on the growing Muslim population, Orthodoxy has quietly and discreetly grown into the second largest religious community in the country. Islam has held the first place in terms of migrants to Austria in recent years. According…
More than a century after being removed from a historic monastery in northern Greece, rare ninth-century Christian manuscripts have been located in the United States, where a team representing the Greek Orthodox Church is waging a tiresome legal battle to return them to the library from which they were taken, pappaspost.com informs. At the moment,…
While addressing the believers present Friday on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Caraiman Monastery, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said that ‘the Holy Cross is the sign of salvation’. Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross out of love for humans, so that we could gain eternal life, salvation. The Patriarch noted…
To honor the memory of the personalities who contributed to the Great Romania’ achievement, Romfilatelia introduces into circulation the postage stamp issue Founders of the Great Union, part two. On the elements of the issue are reproduced portraits of patriots who fought to fulfil the national ideal of the Romanians. On the stamp with the face value of Lei…
Turkey expects to open the Sumela Monastery in Black Sea province of Trabzon after restoration works end soon, Culture and Tourism Minister said according to Anadolou Agency. The Sümela Monastery, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is one of the leading touristic locations in the Eastern Black Sea area. Located in the Macka…
The Turkish Supreme Court has rejected the request of one religious group to convert the Hagia Sophia Cathedral, currently a museum, into a mosque again, reports Interfax-Religion, cited by Orthochristian. The court rejected the application based on the formal mistakes that appeared in it. In its plea, the religious association had argued that barring Islamic prayers at…
The canonization of St. Amphilochios (Makris), proclaimed by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on August 29, will be celebrated next week on the Greek island of Patmos, where the holy elder labored in monasticism. His canonization will be celebrated over a 4-day period, September 17-20, at the Monastery of St. John the Theologian…
On Monday, August 27, the Cypriot Ministry of Justice launched a public consultation for a new bill on the legal recognition of gender identity. This represents the first stage in a long process before the bill, providing for anyone over 18 to legally change their gender, can become law, reports Cyprus Mail Online. Those wishing to…
Following its appeal to help the Greek Orthodox Church in response to the tragic wildfire occurred on July 23-24, 2018, in the vicinity of Athens, the Romanian Patriarchate announces that it has raised the sum of € 300,000 from the dioceses of the Romanian Orthodox Church. This amount of money will be sent to meet…
The Metropolis of Bessarabia has started the procedures for the canonization of Ismail Bishop Dionisie Erhan (1868-1943), who was ordained to the episcopate in Iași in 1918, a short time after Romania’s Great Union took place. The demarches belong to the South Bessarabia Diocese of the Romanian Patriarchate as a result of the investigations made…
The 2018 International Meeting of Orthodox Youth drew to an end Sunday, when during a special ceremony in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Sibiu the ITO 2018 Torch was passed to the Craiova Archdiocese, which will organise next year’s ITO 2019. The closing ceremony took place after the Divine Liturgy presided over by Metropolitan…
We released this year’s eighth issue of the Basilica.ro monthly review. The August 2018 edition is now available in colour pdf format for downloading and local distribution. Basilica.ro Review available for download Each monthly edition will feature select articles that had been published on the Basilica News Agency website during the previous month. Feel free to download, read and distribute…
His Eminence Metropolitan Ioan of Banat officiated Sunday, Sept. 9, a memorial service at the tomb of Romania’s national hero Avram Iancu in Tebea village, marking Iancu’s 146th death anniversary. Avram Iancu was a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer who played an important role in the local chapter of the Austrian Empire Revolutions of 1848-1849. ‘The Little…
Romanian Senators on Tuesday approved a measure that would pave the way for the constitution to be changed to explicitly state that marriage is a union of a man and a woman. Senators voted 107-13 with seven abstentions to allow a referendum that could change the constitution, which currently states that marriage is a union…
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered Tuesday, September 11, a vestment with which the holy relics of Saint Paraskeva were clothed to a representative of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. Saint Paraskeva’s vestment, received from Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina, was handed over to His Eminence Metropolitan Naum of Ruse at the St George Chapel of the…
Thousands of Orthodox young people took to the streets of Sibiu Friday evening, Sept. 7, as part of an International Orthodox Youth Meeting to show popular support for Romania’s need for unity of faith and nation. They carried with them the flags of the dioceses and countries they represented. Sibiu city streets were filled with…
The Orthodox youth attending the ITO 2018 Meeting in Sibiu were united in prayer with the representatives of the local Orthodox Churches at the Divine Liturgy celebrated Saturday, Sept. 8, at Astra Museum, commemorating the feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos. The Divine Liturgy was presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Laurentiu of Transylvania.…