Sofia, July 5, 2024
Patriarch Daniil of Bulgaria. Photo: dnes.dir.bg
The newly-elected Patriarch Daniil will be a “natural unifier” in the Church, believes Archimandrite Dionysius of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. He talked about his pleasant surprise at the election outcome on the Bulgarian Тази сутрин (This Morning) TV program, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists.
Fr. Dionysius said that he knows all three candidates. “I assumed that the human rather than divine plans so common among us would prevail, but the unexpected plan won,” he noted.
Archimandrite Dionysius said he knows Patriarch Daniel as a moderate and very balanced person, and in his opinion, the newly elected Patriarch will be a “natural unifier within the Church.”
In his enthronement speech Patriarch Daniil said, “I believe that the Lord, Who sees the heart and knows that I did not seek this office, having chosen me for this service, will also be my helper; for the Lord ‘imposes a burden, but also saves’ (Psalm 68:19), and because He Himself has told us that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), but that He is with us ‘always, to the end of the world’ (Matt. 28:20).
Fr. Dionysius said that he believes the result of the election was God’s work, and not man’s.
Patriarch Daniil served in the United States from 2010 to 2018 as vicar bishop to Metropolitan Joseph of the USA, Canada, and Australia of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
