Today, 2 December 2014, the Patriarch of Antioch and All East ended the brotherly visit he paid to the Romanian Patriarchate at the invitation of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Before leaving from Henri Coanda International Airport, His Beatitude John X declared: “We leave a very rich country. We leave with great regret because we also leave our brother His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel to whom we convey our sincere thanks, as well as to the hierarchs members of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. We have spent beautiful days together on the feast of Saint Andrew and on the National Day of Romania. The Romanian people are living people and we congratulate them for their faith and power in their hearts for keeping their faith and country. (…) As I discussed with His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel this visit is a beginning of a future full of the consolidation of the relations between the two Churches.”
His Beatitude has also spoken about the things that impressed him most during the four days of the visit: “The most important thing is the role of His Beatitude and his presence together with the members of the Holy Synod, their presence in the daily life of the Romanian people. When the Church, Government and people are in harmony the future of the country is much better. The second thing that impressed us was the initiative of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel together with the members of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the faithful to help their Christian Antiochian brothers with the money donated. It is very clear that the close relationship between the Church and the righteous people impressed us a lot, just like the observation of morality in the family, keeping the faith, the love of the Romanian people for the Church, and for us too, which is a very important thing.”
The visit of the Patriarch of Antioch and All East and of the delegation accompanying him took place from 28 November – 2 December 2014.
