The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartolomeu and Patriarch Daniel participate in the consecration of the Cathedral of the Salvation of the People, on Sunday, November 25, 2018. Photo: Inquam Photos / Raul Stef
The double measure of the Church towards its believers is an old theme of the relationship between BOR and society.
The Romanian Patriarchate denounced the Pride March as “a provocative act”.
The same institution did not react when over a thousand people protested spontaneously, on the street, against violence against women, after the crime in the Cosmopolis neighborhood.
Of course, the Patriarchate does not react to an event, but possibly to themes. The choice of themes defines us as institutions.
choosing
In full election campaign for the second round of presidential elections, on May 9, several churches with Hungarian believers transmitted a public message to parishioners: to vote and vote with the candidate “able to counteract the extremist political forces”.
The Romanian Patriarchate did not consider at that time to publicly send such a message. He only communicated that “the Romanian Orthodox Church reaffirms its neutrality in the presidential elections.” It is, of course, the choice of the Patriarchate.
At another time, after a 23-year-old girl was killed in Bucharest, shot by a man who had assaulted her and in the past and thousands of revolted people went out, the Romanian Patriarchate again preferred to shut up.
When tens of thousands of people (according to data from previous years of the same event) are preparing to go out on the street on Saturday to demand equal rights for sexual minorities, issues related to human rights, the Romanian Patriarchate has decided that it still needs to rule on this event in society.
“For the Romanian Orthodox Church, these provocative events are especially harmful to young people and innocent children,” Patriarchate said on a press release on Thursday.
What is and what is not “inappropriate” for the Romanian Patriarchate
The gentlemen from the Romanian Patriarchate, considered to be suitable for a woman to be threatened with death in 2021, the police know this (according to the data in the files consulted by Hotnews), but the young woman will be killed in 2025 by the one who threatens her? Do you think it is appropriate for DIICOT to classify a file in which the young woman had claimed that the man stole her from the computer on the grounds that “the deed is not serious and is not a public interest”? Why I ask? Because about all these things you did not go out to say that they are “inappropriate”, as you claimed to be the Bucharest Pride march.
Thus, the Romanian Patriarchate was silent and did not ask, as an important actor in the Romanian society, the authorities to make legislative changes so that women receive the help they need in such situations.
The Romanian Patriarchate was not in solidarity with the thousands of people who went out on Tuesday evening in Victoriei Square to ask for justice for the victims of the femicide, in the context of Cosmopolis was the 25th in Romania this year.
For the Romanian Patriarchate it is more scandalous that a minority in this country requires human rights (from general things, such as respect and acceptance, to concrete things, such as civil partnership) than a national phenomenon with tens of thousands of victims.
If the first reaction is a doctrinal one, how is the reaction to women's aggression, at least in this case?
