Bucharest, October 12, 2020
Photo: unica.ro
“Banning believers who do not live in Iași from attending this year’s pilgrimage to St. Parascheva is a disproportionate, discriminatory measure taken without prior consultation with the Romanian Orthodox Church,” writes His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel in a new statement published by the Basilica News Agency.
Her feast is traditionally one of the largest religious events in Romania, drawing tens of thousands of Orthodox faithful annually to the Cathedral in Iași that has been home to her relics since 1641. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, civil authorities ruled that no one is allowed to travel to Iași for the feast and that her relics would not be brought out for the veneration of the faithful.
The ban was earlier characterized as a discriminatory measure by His Eminence Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina, who noted that “Believers have endured severe restrictions on the freedom to manifest religious beliefs in the name of fighting this plague. However, everything has a limit that, if passed, is not good for anyone.”
The Romanian Patriarchate fully stands behind those who long to make their pilgrimage to St. Parascheva and the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina that hosts the annual event.
The Archdiocese of Iași has put a lot of time and energy into thoroughly preparing for this year’s pilgrimage, the Patriarch notes, which should have been “a guarantee that the pilgrimage to Iași or the upcoming pilgrimage to Bucharest, occasioned by the feast of St. Demetrios the New, is both an exercise of responsible health protection and a manifestation of the religious freedom of an eminently religious people.”
Restrictions must be “reasoned and non-discriminatory,” His Beatitude emphasized, and while recognizing the legitimacy of hygienic restrictions during the pandemic, he hopes the “excessive measures” of banning the pilgrimage will be canceled and that the Church and state will find a responsible way to work together on this matter, “so that all pilgrims may be able to pray to St. Parascheva freely these days, with strict observance of all sanitary measures ordered by the competent authorities.”
Other hierarchs and dioceses have also spoken out against the civil authorities’ excessive measures. The Archdiocese of Iași earlier lamented that people are allowed to enter the city for any reason except the pilgrimage.
In a statement on Friday, the Diocese of Huși announced that its priests and faithful will offer daily prayers to St. Parascheva with the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and the reading of her akathist.
The authorities’ discriminatory measures are “unprecedented in history” the diocese writes. The Church has been supportive of the health measures and restrictions thus far, thus it is unfortunate that the authorities treat religious services or events as “favorite places for the spread of the virus,” the statement reads.
And on Thursday, His Eminence Archbishop Ioachim of Roman and Bacău sent a letter of support to Met. Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina, noting that he shares in his spiritual pain.
Even during the times of strictest communist rule, the St. Parascheva pilgrimage was always held, Abp. Ioachim noted.
The celebration of St. Parascheva will be strictly limited to the day of her feast, October 14, this year.
