CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Forty days after the death of Patriarch Teoctist, the Orthodox Church of Romania elected Metropolitan Daniel of Moldavia and Bukovina as its new Patriarch on Tuesday, 12 September. The Metropolitan obtained the votes of 95 members of the ecclesiastical electoral college out of the 161 present. “I am grateful – declared the Metropolitan – to the Holy Synod and to the electoral college for their trust in me and I pledge to continue to serve the Orthodox Church as did Patriarch Teoctist”. Patriarch Daniel was born at Dobresti on 22 July 1951: after completing secondary schooling, he entered the Theological Faculty in Sibiu and later took a doctorate at the Theological Institute in Bucharest. He then studied abroad, first at the Protestant theological faculty in Strasbourg (in France) and then at the Catholic Faculty of Theology in the University of Freiburg (Germany). He was elected Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina in June 1990. Author of many theological writings, the Metropolitan speaks fluent French, German, English and Italian. He was one of the main protagonists in preparing and organizing the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu, which hosted 2,500 delegates of all the Churches of Europe in the Romanian city from 4 to 9 September. “I have learned with great joy that the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has elected Your Excellency as Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church”: so begins the message of congratulations that the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bucharest Ioan Robu, President of the Romanian Bishops’ Conference, sent to the new Patriarch of Romania, Daniel, just a few hours after his election. “The Holy Spirit – writes the Catholic archbishop – through the voice of the members of the ecclesiastical electoral college has called you to be the Father and Pastor of all the faithful of the Romanian Orthodox Church. On behalf of Catholics, I wish to express my feelings of appreciation, respect and love in the Lord. I ask the Triune and omnipotent God, full of love for man, to give you health, blessing, grace and a long and abundant apostolate in the service of the Romanian Orthodox Church in the realization of the common good of all Romanians according to the ancient tradition of your forefathers”.
