The economic situation in Romania is deteriorating each day. Yesterday some 3,000 protesters gathered in cities around the country and called for the resignation of the Government. The Prime Minister fired the Foreign Minister due to remarks he made about the anti-government protesters and the situation is getting worse. The new President of the European Union has called on Romania to enact sweeping economic reforms to ease the living standards of Romanians. Public wages have been cut by 25% and taxes are on the rise things are at a boiling point.
Yesterday the Press office of the Romanian Patriarchate released a statement about how the church needs to act during such times. (I cleaned up the translation a little)
Because the present situation of deep discontent of the Romanian people is very hard, and as a result of the world and economic crisis of the society, the February 15th and 16th meetings of the Church National Assembly and of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church will have as a priority a discussion relating to how the Church could contribute, by words and deeds, to the changing of the present state of crisis of the Romanian society.Although autonomous (Romanian Constitution, article 29, paragraph 5) and neutral from a political point of view, the Church cannot be indifferent to the suffering of the people whom she serves on the way to salvation. Therefore, she must implement her mission of social peace (Bill of the Religious Cults, article 7, paragraph 1) and defender of human dignity when people are humiliated because of social injustice, poverty and helplessness.Therefore, during this hard time, we must increase prayer, dialogue and cooperation in order to, together, find practical ways of resolving the present issues and of re-establishing confidence in the institutions with maxim responsibility for the life of the Romanian society, especially in the present international context which is confused and unstable. In spite of the present difficulties, Christians must cultivate solidarity with those who suffer and the hope that we can overcome the present crisis.
Let us all pray for all of those who suffer around the world because of this economic situation.
