Romania’s Chamber of Deputies established on Wednesday the National Day of Awareness of Violence against Christians. It will be observed on August 16, when the Romanian Orthodox Church commemorates Prince Constantine Brâncoveanu, his sons and one of his advisers, Ianache, martyred by the Ottoman Turks.
In observance of the National Day of Awareness of Violence against Christians, the following buildings will be illuminated in red between 8:00 PM and 12:00 AM: the Romanian Parliament, the Government of Romania, the central and local public authorities’ headquarters, Bucharest’s Arc de Triomphe, and the Prince Brâncoveanu’s Palace in Mogoșoaia, near Bucharest.
This will be done “as a sign of awareness by Romanian citizens of the violence and persecution to which Christians in the world were and are subjected today,” the law states.
Public events and religious services can be held this day in places where authorized commemorative events are held. Events can be funded by central and local authorities, and interested NGOs can provide logistical and financial support.
The Romanian Broadcasting Society, the Romanian Television Society, and the AGERPRES national press agency will give priority to broadcasts and informational materials on the persecution of Christians in the past and present.
The initiator, Deputy Daniel Gheorghe, says in the explanatory statement that he created the bill to inform the public, including young people, about the role of Christianity in the history of Romania and the nature and extent of Christian persecution, which continues today.
He hopes the law will encourage Christians to defend their right to practice their faith without fear or obstruction.
Constantine Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia, died in Constantinople together with his four sons and his treasurer Ianache Văcărescu. They all refused to renounce their Christian faith. The martyrdom took place on August 15, 1714, on the date of the prince’s 60th birthday. He was a patron of arts and culture, father of a large family (11 children), and an artisan of economic renewal. His relics are entombed in Bucharest’s St George the New Church, which he founded.
Open Doors Christian ministry warns that the persecution of Christians continues to this day. 1 in 8 Christians lives in countries with a high level of persecution. The organization made a top of the worst countries for Christians to live in according to the intensity of persecution. The leader of the top is North Korea, where the official “religion” is atheism combined with the cult of the country leader’s personality.
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