Radio România Internațional

Tag: John

  • June 24, 2022

    June 24, 2022

    FINA Romanian swimmer Robert Glinta has today qualified for the semifinals
    of the 50 meter backstroke race of the FINA World Aquatics Championships in
    Budapest, Hungary. The best time in the race was obtained by Justin Ress of the
    USA, gold medalist in the 4×100 meter relay race. The 50 meter backstroke
    semifinals is due tonight and the finals on Saturday. Glinta 25, had previously
    ranked 8th in the 100 meter finals. He is colleague with David
    Popovici, the 17 year old swimmer who on Wednesday was the second swimmer in
    the world to have become world champion in the 200 meter and 100 meter
    freestyle races in the same edition of a championships. Angelica Muscalu and
    Constantin Popovici will be representing Romania in the diving competition of
    the same championship due next week.








    HOLIDAY Orthodox believers who are a majority in Romania together with the
    Greek-Catholics are today celebrating the birth of John the Baptist, considered
    the last prophet of the Old Testament, who announced the coming of the Messiah.
    John the Baptist who had been born in the family of Jewish priest Zachariah six
    months before Jesus urged people to repentance baptizing them in the Jordan
    River. John also baptized Jesus introducing Him to the world as the Messiah who
    was to come. This Christian holiday overlaps a heathen celebration known in
    Romania as Sanziene, who were believed to be mythological creatures in charge
    of prosperity and fertility.










    CANDIDACY EU Leaders have granted the statute of accession candidates to Ukraine
    and the Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet, Romanian speaking country. In turn,
    Georgia has been encouraged to continue its reforms to be able to get this
    status in the future. Romania has hailed the major step towards European
    integration taken by its two neighbours.










    EXAM
    Over 83% of the eight graders in Romania’s secondary schools have recently been
    admitted to high schools after passing the national Evaluation Exam, which is a
    record figure of the past 10 years. After the results were listed on Thursday,
    Education Minister Sorin Campeanu said the number of students taking the
    aforementioned exam was also the highest in the past 6 years.








    BLOUSE Today is the day of the Romanian traditional blouse known as Ie.
    Starting this year Romanians will be able to celebrate this day legally after
    the country’s president Klaus Iohannis issued a law, which was already
    published in the Official Gazette. Under the new law, cultural, social and
    artistic events can be staged in this respect while mass media is encouraged to
    disseminate materials promoting this traditional piece of clothing. Education
    units, cultural institutions, communication centers as well as Romania’s
    diplomatic representations are invited to get involved in various actions of
    promoting this event.




    (bill)

  • January 6, 2021 UPDATE

    January 6, 2021 UPDATE

    VACCINE A third batch of 15,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine has arrived in Romania on the airports in Bucharest, Cluj Napoca and Timisoara. Romanias immunization programme started on December 27th, and over 58,000 medical workers have been immunized so far. The campaign’s second stage is to commence at the end of next week and will be addressing vulnerable people and workers in key sectors. Authorities estimate that the third stage of the programme, targeting the entire population, may begin in April. Since the onset of the pandemic, roughly 654 thousand people have been infected on Romania’s territory and nearly 16,300 died.



    PARTNERSHIP Romania joined the effort of several EU member states for the development of a European mechanism for the access of Eastern Partnership countries to the anti-COVID-19 vaccine. The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu and his counterparts from Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia sent a joint letter to the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and to other top European Commission officials. The document voices support for a EU mechanism enabling Eastern Partnership countries to have access to anti-COVID-19 vaccines, similar to Western Balkan countries. The 13 foreign ministers emphasized that the initiative will indirectly benefit millions of citizens in the Eastern Partnership countries and will strengthen health security within the EU.


    GOVERNMENT Financial
    audits in all companies and institutions subordinated to ministries and the
    possible reopening of schools on February 8 were the main topics of Wednesday’s
    government meeting. By February 4, ministers are to present the PM Florin Cîţu reports
    on the financial state of all subordinated companies and solutions and
    deadlines to making them efficient. Meanwhile, the education minister Sorin
    Cîmpeanu announced schools may reopen in the second half of the academic year. He
    explained a decision will be made by the end of January. Sorin Cimpeanu added
    that in the meantime schools remain closed and classes are taught exclusively
    online.


    ALERTS Hydrologists have extended and broadened code-yellow and orange alerts for flooding on several rivers in northern, central and southern Romania. Scores of towns and villages in 11 counties across Romania have been affected by flooding in the past days. Heavy rainfalls have caused damage and temporarily disrupted traffic on several national and county roads. Rail traffic has also been disrupted and special teams have intervened to pump water out of households and unblock roads and railways in several regions.



    DONATION The Romanian Defence Ministry Wednesday donated COVID-19 personal protective equipment to the Defence Ministry of the Republic of Moldova. The new batch, consisting in face masks, face shields and overgarments follows a previous donation made last spring and is part of a support package for the Republic of Moldova, reiterated by the president of Romania Klaus Iohannis during a recent visit to Chişinău. According to the Romanian Defence Ministry, this reconfirms Romanias commitment to supporting the Moldovan authorities and their efforts to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

    AMBASSADORS Nine
    candidates for ambassador posts were interviewed by Parliament’s specialised
    committees on Wednesday. Daniela Popescu, the candidate for Romania’s ambassador
    to the UK, and Cristian Istrate, the candidate for Romania’s ambassador to the Russian
    Federation, are among those who received the greenlight. The interviews had
    been scheduled for last November, but were deferred.


    HOLY DAY January 6th is a major date for Orthodox and Catholic believers in Romania, a country with an Orthodox majority, which today celebrated Epiphany or the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. On Wednesday priests gave special services and distributed holy water to believers. Because this holiday involves the participation of numerous people, in all the churches across Romania, measures were taken to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Winter holidays in Romania are due to end on Thursday with a festivity celebrating the birth of St. John the Baptist. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • January 6, 2020 UPDATE

    January 6, 2020 UPDATE

    VISITS The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis and PM Ludovic Orban have working visits scheduled for the next few days, including meetings with European officials. The head of state will travel on Tuesday to southern Germany, where he will have talks with the Bavarian PM Markus Soder, head of the Christian-Social Union, a partner in the ruling coalition in Germany, and will attend a meeting of the Bavarian government, where he will give an address. President Iohannis will also take part in the annual meeting of the CSU group in Bundestag, the lower chamber in the German parliament, where he is to present Romanias views on the future of Europe. On Tuesday, PM Ludovic Orban will travel to Brussels, for meetings with the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.




    BUDGET President Klaus Iohannis Monday signed into law the 2020 state budget and social security budget bills, the Presidency announced. On December 23, the Liberal Government took responsibility before Parliament for the budget bills, the first time when this procedure has been used, in order to make sure that the bills are adopted by year-end, as PM Ludovic Orban explained. The state budget relies on a 4.1% economic growth rate, a 3.1% inflation rate and an average exchange rate of 4.75 lei for the euro. The speakers of the 2 chambers of Parliament, both in Opposition, challenged the procedure and referred the issue to the Constitutional Court.




    HOSPITAL Human error was the cause of the incident at the Floreasca Hospital in Bucharest, the largest emergency unit in Romania, where a patient died last month after suffering burns during surgery. This is the conclusion of the investigation that resulted in a roughly 6,300 euro fine against the hospital, as well as penalties against the entire surgery team. According to a news release issued by the Healthcare Ministry, the hospital also decided to dismiss Dr. Mircea Beuran as head of surgery, for failure to comply with the management contract. Doctors, nurses and assistants announced on Monday that they will go on strike to protest Dr. Beurans dismissal and that they will only attend to major emergencies. At the end of last month the National Healthcare Quality Management Authority suspended the accreditation of the hospital for failure to report the incident within 24 hours.




    EPIPHANY Orthodox and Greek Catholic believers celebrated on Monday the Epiphany or the Baptism of Jesus, when the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ is marked. Waters are blessed on this occasion. The Epiphany is followed, on Tuesday, by St. John the Baptists feast day, which concludes the winter holiday cycle. Old-rite Christians, mostly Russian, Ukrainian and Serb ethnics, are celebrating Christmas on January 7. The separation of Orthodox churches took place in the early 20th Century, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decided to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.




    TENSIONS NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg
    has called on Iran to avoid further violence and provocations, at the end of
    a special meeting with NATO ambassadors in Brussels. We share concerns
    regarding Iran’s missile tests, and are united in condemning Tehran’s support
    for various terrorist groups, Stoltenberg also said. Huge crowds in mourning
    and shouting Death to the USA accompanied in Tehran on Monday the coffin of General
    Qassem Soleimani, the most popular military commander in Iran, killed in Iraq
    in a US drone strike. As a result, Iran announced it will no longer be
    bound by the international nuclear deal reached in 2015, and which the Trump
    administration abandoned in 2018. European countries, still part of the agreement,
    said they deeply regretted Iran’s decision to disregard uranium enrichment
    restrictions. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with Russia’s
    president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday. Meanwhile, US president Donald
    Trump threatened tough sanctions if Iraq expels the US troops from that
    country. Trump made this statement after the Iraqi parliament endorsed a
    resolution urging the government to work toward the removal of foreign troops
    from Iraq. In Bucharest, PM Ludovic Orban said he is monitoring the situation with
    concern and attention, and that an escalation of the tensions is not desired.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Pope’s visit to Romania

    Pope’s visit to Romania

    There are many
    voices saying the Pope’s upcoming visit to Romania is a historic event. Let’s
    not forget, though, that the extremely charismatic Sovereign Pontiff Saint John
    Paul II visited Romania in 1999, being the first head of the Catholic Church to
    ever set foot in a predominantly Orthodox country after the Great Schism of
    1054.






    Back then, the
    Pope called Romania ‘The Garden of Virgin Mary’. Pope Francis’ apostolic visit
    to Romania, between May 31st and June 2nd, with legs in
    Bucharest, Iasi, Sumuleu-Ciuc and Blaj, will take place under the motto ‘Let’s walk
    together’, which is a reference to the same expression used by Pope John Paul
    II.






    God’s people in
    Romania live under the protection of Virgin Mary, Catholic prelates explain. During
    his visit, Pope Francis will invite all to unite under the protective cloak of
    Virgin Mary. He will plead for gathering all forces together, strengthening
    faith and giving priority to the common good.






    The Romanian
    President Klaus Iohannis is expected to welcome Pope Francis on May 31st,
    at 11.30 a.m., at the ‘Henri Coanda’ International Airport, and the official
    welcoming ceremony at the Cotroceni Palace, the headquarters of the Romanian
    presidency, is scheduled to take place half an hour later.






    The program also
    includes private meetings as well as a meeting with Prime Minister Viorica
    Dancila and other officials, representatives of civil society and of the diplomatic
    corp. The head of state will give a statement, and the Pope a speech. Also on
    May 31st, the Pope will have a private meeting with the Patriarch of
    the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel, as well as with the Permanent Synod of
    the Romanian Orthodox Church, at the Patriarchy Palace in the Romanian capital.






    The Pope will
    visit the National Cathedral, which is currently under construction, where
    speeches will be given and Easter songs performed, followed by the Lord’s
    Prayer. Then, the Pope will hold a mass at the ‘Saint Joseph’ Catholic
    Cathedral. On June 1st, Pope Francis will be traveling to
    Transylvania, to the Marian Sanctuary in Sumuleu – Ciuc, which hosts every year
    the largest Pentecost pilgrimage in Central and Eastern Europe.






    He will then go
    to Iasi, in the north-east, where he will visit the ‘Saint Mary the Queen’
    Cathedral and attend a meeting with young people and families at the Culture
    Palace, where he will also give a speech.






    On the last day
    of his visit to Romania, on June 2nd, the head of the Catholic
    Church will attend the Divine Liturgy on the Freedom Field in Blaj, in central
    Romania, where seven Greek-Catholic martyr bishops, killed between 1950-1970 in
    communist prisons, will be beatified. The visit to Romania of Pope Francis will
    end on June 2nd, at 5.30 p.m. with an official ceremony at the Sibiu
    International Airport.