Radio România Internațional

Tag: Mary

  • August 12, 2023 UPDATE

    August 12, 2023 UPDATE

    RATE
    According to data released by the National Institute for Statistics (the INS) in
    July Romania’s inflation rate went down to 9.4% from 10.3% in June while prices
    in food products went up by 16.24% and in non-food products by 4.25%. According
    to the same sources, prices for services went up by 11.65%. Sugar, air
    transportation and potatoes saw the highest price hikes this year, whereas oil
    is the only commodity, whose price went down. According to the INS, the medium
    average salary in Romania stood at nearly 930 Euros in June, 11 Euros higher
    than in May this year. For the Social-Democratic Prime Minister, Marcel
    Ciolacu, the lower inflation rate shows that the government’s measures aimed at
    curbing inflation proved to be successful. He said the Executive would
    cooperate with the country’s Central Bank in the fight against the rising
    prices.








    HOLIDAY
    Romanians are in a four-day mini-holiday as August 14th is a bank
    holiday in Romania where St. Mary is being celebrated a day later on August 15th.
    Various events have been staged on this occasion all over the country and tens
    of thousands of pilgrims are expected at the Nicula Monastery in Cluj,
    north-western Romania. The Summer Well festival is underway until August the 13th
    in Buftea close to Bucharest and the days of the Braila city are being
    celebrated in this town in south-eastern Romania. Numerous tourists are being
    expected in the mountains resorts in the Prahova Valley, southern Romania these
    days, as well as on the Romanian Black Sea coast, which will be seeing its
    busiest weekend. Hotel owners in the seaside resorts are expected to provide
    accommodation to over 100 thousand tourists. Over 8 thousand police troops and
    6 thousand gendarmes have been deployed to ensure safety and order during this
    mini-holiday.






    NAVY Romania’s naval forces are these
    day staging a series of activities devoted to Romania’s Navy Day culminating on
    August 15th when the Romanians are celebrating the Dormition of the
    Mother of God, St. Mary, who is the protector of sailors. Events are underway
    in the capital city and the port-cities on the Black Sea, Constanta and
    Mangalia as well as on the Danube at Braila, Tulcea and Galati. These events
    will reach the climax on august 15th in Constanta, where the sailors
    will be presenting after a four-year recess the demonstrative exercise
    ‘Romanian Naval Forces 2023’. After the opening ceremony involving helicopters
    and fast boats carrying the flags of Romania, NATO and the EU, the
    school-frigate Mircea will be sailing in front of the participants. The
    aforementioned vintage vessel has for decades been Romania’s honorary
    ambassador on the world’s seas and oceans.






    GRAIN Romania will be
    taking additional measures aimed at doubling the Ukrainian grain transit
    through its facilities. The Romanian authorities want to supplement the number
    of pilots guiding the Ukrainian vessels carrying grain on the Danube to the
    Black Sea. Upon a meeting held in Galati, eastern Romania, on Friday, an event
    that brought together representatives of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, the
    United States and the European Commission, the Romanian transport minister
    Sorin Grindeanu spoke about the possibility for Ukraine to use other ports on
    the Danube besides Braila and Galati. According to him the number of pilots
    guiding the aforementioned grain shipments is to increase to 60 until the end
    of August. The United States has pledged financial assistance to the neighbours
    of Ukraine helping them to buy pilot boats to support regional efforts in this
    respect, the US embassy has announced. According to the same sources, the
    United States remains committed to the partnership with the Ukraine’s government
    and people – including by providing financial support and supplies by expanding
    alternative transport routes and streamlining the border crossing points.




    (bill)

  • May 28, 2023

    May 28, 2023

    DAY The Day of the Romanians all over the
    world is a special moment and it has a major emotional, spiritual and cultural
    dimension, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis says in the message conveyed on
    this occasion today. According to him, Romania has a large Diaspora, which
    could represent the force capable of promoting the Romanian values and
    spirituality in a continuously changing Europe. The Day of the Romanians all
    over the world is celebrated in the last Sunday of the month of May in order to
    acknowledge the importance the state attaches to the communities of Romanians
    living outside the country’s borders. In Italy this day has been marked through
    a series of theatre shows. A team of professors and students from the
    University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest has kicked off a project entitled,
    ‘A Caravan for the Romanians all over the world’, which has already had its
    first shows in Rome and is going to give more performances in Lazio, Turin, Padua
    and Venice. In Bucharest, over 300 Romanians from the historical communities
    and from abroad have attended a three-day event entitled ‘Here-There’ unfolding
    under the auspices of the Romanian president. ‘Here-There’ comprised a series
    of events staged by the Department for the Romanians All Over the World jointly
    with the Fine Artists Union in Romania and has brought together artists from
    Romania and abroad from various fields, like art, design, music and literature.








    STRIKE The all-out strike of the Romanian
    teachers is going to continue into the next week with a fresh protest rally in
    Bucharest on Tuesday. Demonstrations took place on Friday in several major
    Romanian cities, as teachers are disgruntled by the government offer of 500 Euro
    bonuses in two installments. The Executive has accepted though a 9% pay rise
    for the auxiliary staff who are going to get bonuses around 200 euros also in
    two installments. Trade unions in the country’s education system have asked for
    a 25% pay rise and for wages of 600 euros for beginners. Employees in the
    primary and secondary education kicked off their protests on May 22nd
    disgruntled with the low wages and working conditions. Trade union leaders have
    threatened with more protests unless their claims are met.






    MEDAL Romanian rower Ionela Cozmiuc has today reaped gold in
    LW1x race of the European Championships in Bled, Slovenia. The Romanian made a
    spectacular comeback and managed to overtake a Greek opponent. The women’s four
    from Romania walked away with gold from the same competition on Saturday, while
    the country’s crew of eight became silver medalist in the men’s competition. We
    recall that last year, Romania walked away with five gold medals and three
    bronze from the European Championships held in Munich, the best Romanian
    performance in the aforementioned competition ever.








    HOLIDAY Catholic believers in Romania are today
    celebrating Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the
    other followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. This holiday, which completes the
    Easter cycle – the Resurrection, the Ascension and the descent of the Holy
    Spirit – is a major Christian event always celebrated on Sundays, fifty days
    after Easter. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands believers, including the
    president of Hungary Novak Katalin, participated in the great pilgrimage on
    Catholic Pentecost in Sumuleu Ciuc, central Romania. The event there brought
    together Catholics from all over the world, most of them Hungarian-speaking
    believers, including from countries like Australia and the United States. The
    pilgrimage in Sumuleu Ciuc boasts a history of 450 years and has at its center
    the miracle-working statue of Virgin Mary in the Franciscan Church there.
    Legend has it that around the year 1567, the Transylvanian Prince John
    Sigismund would have tried to impose Unitarianism to the Roman-Catholic
    believers who managed to keep their faith with the help of the aforementioned
    statue. Hundreds of gendarmes, policemen and firefighters have been deployed
    for the good functioning of the pilgrimage, while the local authorities have
    imposed traffic restrictions.




    (bill)

  • Ceremonies and pilgrimages in Romania

    Ceremonies and pilgrimages in Romania

    In Romania, which has an Orthodox
    majority, pilgrimages to various monasteries around the country are commonplace
    on this occasion. Numerous Orthodox believers gathered around the Nicula
    Monastery in Cluj, north-western Romania, while Greek-Catholics attended the
    religious service at the St. Mary’s Sisters Church in Cluj-Napoca.




    Thousands of believers of various
    denominations gathered at the Maria Radna Basilica in Arad, western Romania,
    where the religious service was offered in several languages, Hungarian,
    Romanian, German and Croatian. And because St. Mary is also known as the patron
    saint of sailors, on August 15th Romania also celebrates its Navy
    Day, with a series of religious and military ceremonies in its ports and cities
    at the Black Sea and the Danube. The Navy Day was marked on Sunday in the
    Military Port of Constanta, on the Black Sea coast through an anniversary
    ceremony, which was also attended by the country’s president Klaus Iohannis.






    Due to the Covid-19 pandemic this
    year the public wasn’t allowed to attend the ceremonies, which were limited to
    a military parade of the war vessels, which the locals and tourists could watch
    from the coast. The parade this year, which was headed by the Marasesti
    Frigate, the biggest warship ever built in Romania, was attended by vessels
    belonging to Romania’s Armed Forces and to its Interior Ministry and by a
    frigate from Turkey. On this occasion, President Iohannis reviewed the Guard of
    Honour, made up of Romanian, British and US troops and offered medals to Fleet
    56 and the Maritime Hydrographic Direction for their activity.






    The president thanked the Romanian
    sailors and their families for their daily efforts and sacrifices and mentioned
    the strategic role played by the Romanian Navy in our present time, when the Black
    Sea region’s geo-strategic role had been increased as the foreign border of the
    EU and by its NATO membership.






    The National Security and the
    security of the Romanian citizens are the main vectors guiding our strategic
    positioning as well as the efforts of the Romanian Armed Forces’, Iohannis went
    on to say. According to the Romanian official, ‘significant progress has been
    made in recent years in the process of fitting the Romanian Navy with the
    necessary equipment, including through a programme aimed at streamlining the
    coastal defence system. As part of this process, Iohannis recalled that the
    documents of an inter-governmental procurement agreement between the United
    States and Romania were signed in April.




    (bill)



  • Pope Francis’ Visit to Romania

    Pope Francis’ Visit to Romania

    ‘May the Virgin Mary give her
    mother blessing to all Romanian citizens, who during history have put their trust
    in her intercession. I entrust you all to Virgin Mary and pray that she may
    guide you on the path of faith’ Pope Francis wrote in a touching message posted
    on Twitter on Sunday night in the plane that was carrying him back to the
    Vatican after the visit he had paid to Romania.






    Under the suggestive motto, ‘Let us
    walk together!’, the Pontiff paid a three-day pastoral and ecumenical visit to
    Romania, which was welcomed by the Romanians with warmth and eagerness. Many
    Romanians took to the streets to see Pope Francis, one of the most beloved
    Pontiffs, whose popularity resides in his humanity, modesty and austerity.








    The first day, which he spent in
    Bucharest, was marked by moments of symbolical and historical nature. Pope
    Francis was received by President Klaus Iohannis and held talks with the
    country’s Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. He visited the Patriarchy Palace,
    where he had a private meeting with Daniel, the Patriarch of the Romanian
    Orthodox Church; he delivered a speech at the National Cathedral and said the
    Lord’s Prayer in Latin.






    Pope Francis also held a mass at
    St. Joseph’s Cathedral and hailed the tens of thousands who came to see him. On
    the second day of his visit, Pope Francis held a Pontifical Liturgy at the
    Marian Shrine in Sumuleu Ciuc, eastern Transylvania, an area mainly inhabited
    by ethnic Hungarians, which sees the largest annual Catholic pilgrimage in
    Central and Eastern Europe.








    Pope Francis: This annual
    pilgrimage belongs to the Transylvanian heritage, but brings honour to both the
    Romanian and Hungarian traditions. Christians of other denominations are
    participating in it as this is the symbol of dialogue, unity and fraternity.








    After Sumuleu Ciuc, His Holiness
    left for Iasi, in north-eastern Romania, a city that boasts a large community
    of Catholic believers. ‘Romania is the Garden of the Virgin Mary and during
    this visit I realized this because she is a Mother who cultivates the dreams of
    her sons and daughters, who guards their expectations and brings joy to their
    homes’, the Pontiff also said.








    Pope Francis also paid a visit to
    the Holy Virgin Mary Queen Cathedral and blessed 800 children, old and sick
    people and prayed together with those present for young people and families.
    Roughly 150 thousand pilgrims attended the ceremonies but the most important
    moment of the Pope’s visit was the beatification of the seven Eastern Catholic
    bishops martyred by the Communist regime.








    Pope Francis: We have in
    mind the seven Greek Catholic bishops, whom we’ve had the joy of proclaiming
    Happy now. They proved their faith and exemplary love for their people during
    the fierce persecution of the regime. With great courage and inner strength
    they endured tough detention conditions and other cruel abuses and refused to give
    up their faith and belonging to their beloved church. These martyr priests have
    regained and left a precious heritage to the Romanian people, which we can sum
    up in two words: freedom and mercy.


    In Blaj, central Romania, Pope
    Francis met representatives of the Roma community, whom he asked for
    forgiveness for being discriminated against along the centuries. Pope Francis’
    visit comes 20 years after the one paid by Pope John Paul ll, the first to a
    country with an Orthodox majority.








    ‘I go back richer, taking with me
    places and moments, but mainly faces. Your faces will bring colour to my
    memories and will be present in my prayers. I thank you and carry you along!,
    the Pontiff went on to say at the end of his visit to Romania.




    (translated by bill)

  • December 26, 2017 UPDATE

    December 26, 2017 UPDATE

    CHRISTMAS – In Romania, Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians celebrated, on the second day of Christmas, the Synaxis of the Theotokos, which is a celebration of Mary, the Mother of God. This is one of the oldest feast days devoted to Virgin Mary, dating back to the 5th Century. The Synaxis of the Theotokos is the assembly of believers to honour the one through whom the incarnation of God was possible. Also on Tuesday, Roman Catholic Christians celebrate St Stephen, the first martyr.




    HOLIDAYS – Thousands of Romanians are spending their winter holidays in the mountain resorts in Valea Prahovei region in the south, in Maramures in the north-west of the country and in Bucovina, in the north-east. Sinaia and Buşteni, on Prahova Valley, are among the most popular resorts in the country at this time of the year. In Bâlea Lac, in Făgăraş Mountains, at over 2,000 m altitude, the new Ice Hotel, the only one of its kind in Romania, was opened on Sunday. Most of the tourists having booked a room here come from abroad.




    ROYAL HOUSE – The Royal House of Romania attended on Tuesday the Christmas service held at the Orthodox church in Săvârşin, the west of Romania. The royals are on 40-day mourning after the death of Romanias last king, Michael I. He passed away on December 5, aged 96, and was buried on December 16, in Curtea de Arges, southern Romania, where the other 3 monarchs of Romania are also interred. Tens of thousands of people took part in the national funerals of the one they regard as a model of dignity, honour, devotion and love for the country.




    CONSULTATIONS – The PM of Romania, Mihai Tudose, has agreed to hold talks on Wednesday with representatives of over 40 NGOs involved in the street protests against the controversial changes in the justice laws. The organisations had sent the PM an open letter expressing their willingness to contribute to dialogue, consultation and solutions, in full compliance with the rule of law, democratic principles and fundamental human rights. They say there have been major deficiencies in the dialogue and consultations between lawmakers and society with respect to the justice laws and the changes of the criminal codes. On Friday, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, sent a letter to President Klaus Iohannis, urging him to request an official opinion from the Venice Commission with respect to the legislative reform endorsed by Parliament. Previously, the embassies of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden to Bucharest issued a joint letter calling on all stakeholders in the judiciary reform process to avoid measures that would weaken the independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. In response, the Foreign Ministry said strengthening the rule of law and fighting corruption are among the priorities of the Government of Romania. In turn, the leaders of the ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, Liviu Dragnea and Calin Popescu Tariceanu, respectively, promised that the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, and Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu would inform embassies properly with respect to the legislative changes in this field.




    EU – The German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that if the EU managed to get a smart deal with Britain that governs relations with Europe after Brexit, it could be a model for other countries. The German diplomat added that Tukey and Ukraine are not likely to get full EU membership very soon, which is why the EU should consider alternative forms of closer cooperation. Gabriel also suggested that such an approach could take the form of a closer customs union with Turkey. Although the current situation proves that that country is still rather far from joining the EU, recent moves by Ankara indicate willingness to improve relations with Brussels, the German official also said. Shortly before Christmas, Turkey decided to free a German pilgrim after nearly 9 months of detention, and a German journalist who had spent 7 months in custody over alleged ties with a terrorist organisation.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • December 26, 2017

    December 26, 2017

    CHRISTMAS — In Romania, Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Christians celebrate today, on the second day of Christmas, the Synaxis of the Theotokos, which is a celebration of Mary, the Mother of God. This is one of the oldest feast days devoted to Virgin Mary, dating back to the 5th Century. The Synaxis of the Theotokos is the assembly of believers to honour the one through whom the incarnation of God was possible. Also today, Roman Catholic Christians celebrate St Stephen, the first martyr.





    HOLIDAYS — Thousands of Romanians are spending their winter holidays in the mountain resorts in Valea Prahovei region in the south, in Maramures in the north-west of the country and in Bucovina, in the north-east. Sinaia and Buşteni, on Prahova Valley, are among the most popular resorts in the country at this time of the year. In Bâlea Lac, in Făgăraş Mountains, at over 2,000 m altitude, the new Ice Hotel, the only one of its kind in Romania, was opened on Sunday. Most of the tourists having booked a room here come from abroad.




    ROYAL HOUSE — The Royal House of Romania attended on Tuesday the Christmas service held at the Orthodox church in Săvârşin, the west of Romania. The royals are on 40-day mourning after the death of Romania’s last king, Michael I. He passed away on December 5, aged 96, and was buried on December 16, in Curtea de Arges, southern Romania, where the other 3 monarchs of Romania are also interred. Tens of thousands of people took part in the national funerals of the one they regard as a model of dignity, honour, devotion and love for the country.




    CONSULTATIONS — The PM of Romania, Mihai Tudose, has agreed to hold talks tomorrow with representatives of over 40 NGOs involved in the street protests against the controversial changes in the justice laws. The organisations had sent the PM an open letter expressing their willingness to contribute to dialogue, consultation and solutions, in full compliance with the rule of law, democratic principles and fundamental human rights. They say there have been major deficiencies in the dialogue and consultations between lawmakers and society with respect to the justice laws and the changes of the criminal codes. On Friday, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, sent a letter to President Klaus Iohannis, urging him to request an official opinion from the Venice Commission with respect to the legislative reform endorsed by Parliament. Previously, the embassies of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden to Bucharest issued a joint letter calling on all stakeholders in the judiciary reform process to avoid measures that would weaken the independence of the judiciary and the fight against corruption. In response, the Foreign Ministry said strengthening the rule of law and fighting corruption are among the priorities of the Government of Romania. In turn, the leaders of ruling coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Romania, Liviu Dragnea and Calin Popescu Tariceanu, respectively, promised that the Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, and Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu would inform embassies properly with respect to the legislative changes in this field.




    EU — The German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that if the EU managed to get a smart deal with Britain that governs relations with Europe after Brexit, it could be a model for other countries. The German diplomat added that Turkey and Ukraine are not likely to get full EU membership very soon, which is why the EU should consider alternative forms of closer cooperation. Gabriel also suggested that such an approach could take the form of a closer customs union with Turkey. Although the current situation proves that that country is still rather far from joining the EU, recent moves by Ankara indicate willingness to improve relations with Brussels, the German official also said. Shortly before Christmas, Turkey decided to free a German pilgrim after nearly 9 months of detention, and a German journalist who had spent 7 months in custody over alleged ties with a terrorist organisation.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)