His Beatitude Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, arrived in Bucharest on Saturday 5 March, for his seventh visit to Romania. On his arrival at the international airport of Bucharest, the Ecumenical Patriarch blessed the Romanian people and declared that he was praying that the aspirations and hopes of Romanians would be fulfilled, especially with regard to Romania’s integration in the European Union. The Patriarch also stressed that he had visited no other sister church like the Romanian Church. This, he said, shows the close links that have existed for centuries between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Patriarch then participated in the solemn session of the National Ecclesiastic Assembly, held in the seat of the Patriarchate of the Romanian Church. The Assembly commemorates the 120th anniversary of the independence of the Romanian Church (when it achieved autocephalous status) and the 180th anniversary of the creation of the Romanian Patriarchate. Bartholomew I and Patriarch Teoctist of the Romanian Orthodox Church co-celebrated a mass in the church of St. Spiridon the New in Bucharest on Sunday, 6 March.
