In a message for the Sunday of Romanian Migrants observed by the Romanian Patriarchate on the first Sunday after the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel stressed that the Church is called “to intensify its pastoral program for elderly people, to think of new forms and modern pastoral methods, getting closer to the needs and expectations of seniors, but also to grow and educate young people so that they do not marginalise, abandon or isolate older persons in assistance centres because young people and older persons need each other.”

Elderly care highlights the depth of a people’s Christian life: full text

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed the year 2023 as the Solemn Year of the pastoral care of the elderly and the Commemorative Year of hymnographers and church chanters.

The traditional human community has always been concerned with the elderly, considering them not a burden, but a source of blessing, a treasure that carries a living tradition, but also merciful love through their participation in the healthy development of young people.

At no other time in history has Europe had an older population, not only in rural communities but also in urban ones. This new social reality also requires adapting new forms of pastoral care, which respond to and fulfil the needs of today’s believers.

The Church must be concerned with all believers, regardless of their age or socio-cultural status, supporting them towards a natural development of the image of God in His likeness, towards the fulfilment of the purpose of human existence: the sanctification of one’s life for the acquisition of God’s Kingdom.

If we must respond to everyone, being close to all our fellows, we have the moral obligation to concern ourselves with those in need or those who cannot manage without help: children and seniors.

The degree of civilisation of a people is seen in the care it shows for older people, children and those in need who cannot help themselves. Liturgy and philanthropy indicate an actual spiritual vitality of a Christian community.

In this sense, we cannot remain indifferent to the state of social abandonment and disinterest towards the elderly, which we see, unfortunately, too often in today’s society.

Unfortunately, there are many older people who, for various reasons, live in great loneliness, in isolation from their community, somehow feeling useless.

Moreover, traumatised by their own ageing, they reach despair and reject help from young people.

That is why the Church is called to intensify its pastoral program for older people, to think of new forms and modern pastoral methods, getting closer to the needs and expectations of seniors, but also to grow and educate young people so that they do not marginalise, abandon or isolate older persons in assistance centres because young people and older persons need each other: the old need comfort and a word of encouragement, and the young need wisdom, patience and the power of prayer the elderly have.

The Romanian Orthodox Church is already making significant efforts to help the elderly. More than vouchsafing their pastoral care through various social centres and philanthropic actions or programs, the Romanian Patriarchate offers concrete support to seniors.

For example, at Saint Nectarios Palliative Care Centre in Bucharest, over 500 sick and elderly people receive accommodation, medical care and spiritual and psychological counselling annually.

We are confident that this missionary work of the Church will increase throughout the country and in the Romanian Orthodox communities abroad through multiple actions to help the elderly.

It is worth noting that there are currently 21 daycare centres, 54 residential homes and 52 home care services for the elderly at the level of the Romanian Patriarchate.

The pastoral care and special attention the Romanian Patriarchate shows to Romanians of different ages located in the Romanian Orthodox communities outside Romania have been materialised through the multiplication and intensification of the pastoral-missionary, construction works, social-philanthropic and educational-cultural activities in the 1,483 parishes and non-parochial churches and 71 Romanian Orthodox monastic settlements abroad.

The Mother Church supports and encourages her spiritual sons and daughters in the diaspora to feel the joy of finding and living the ancestral faith by participating in the liturgical life, cultural events, and the social-philanthropic actions organised by the parishes in the Romanian diaspora, and calls them to preserve connection with the elderly people left at home so as not to feel useless and abandoned in their own country.

On this particular Sunday dedicated to Romanians who are far from their motherland, we want to thank the servants of the holy altars and all the Romanian Orthodox believers abroad for their constant love for the motherland and the Mother Church, and for their faithful ministry.

With much fatherly love, we urge all Romanians who live far away from their country to stay in permanent contact with their loved ones who remained at home – great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters – so that the great geographical distances do not cause spiritual alienation among them and to preserve family unity.

With much appreciation and fatherly blessing,

† Daniel
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church