From our Correspondents: Romania under Attack – As Usual
Below we publish excerpts from recent Romanian correspondence. Readers should not be scandalised by it. It was always so - decadence alongside holiness. The EU/US-manipulated (‘democratic’!) government in Romania markets monasteries as tourist destinations in the West. It wants to destroy monasticism - as the Communists could not. The EU/US is like rust, once it attacks monastic metal, it does great damage. We all know what they and their Greek puppets want to do on Mt Athos....
Fr Andrew
......There is the Ecumenical Centre at the Durau Monastery. It is mainly a tourist attraction in a region of ravishing beauty. To my knowledge it has never been involved in ecumenical concelebrations. I might be wrong. There are many others, of more concern being the ones in Banat and Transylvania (the one at Sibiu is of particular concern). You may remember the infamous case of Metropolitan Nicolae (Corneanu) of Banat and that of the Bishop of Oradea Sofronie (Drincec) who concelebrated with the Uniats, Metropolitan Nicolae taking communion from a Catholic priest. The popular outcry was so swift and loud that even the Holy Synod had to take notice and discipline the culprits (albeit mildly). I was in Romania at the time and saw at first hand the reaction. Finally, after new relapses in his jurisdiction - a new case of communion with the Catholics in Bocsa Montana involving the notorious Vassoula Ryden - and his unrepentant stance, he was ‘retired’. Thanks God and the good Orthodox who did not lower their guard
What seems significant to me in the case of the severance of communion between the Serbian Church and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Romanian Church, is that it came with the background of the preparatory discussions for the Pan-Orthodox Conference which is to discuss precisely the matters of Diasporas, canonical territories and autocephaly. The Russian and Romanian Churches adopted the same position versus the ‘Greek’ Churches (consensus versus majority vote). They also have in common the same stance in respect to the Unia, sodomy and abortion. I think that the severance of communion was engineered precisely with the aim at torpedoing the Conference.....
The new Prime Minister of Romania appointed as ‘special advisor in the field of security and economic strategies’...the retired General Wesley Clark. (Does this prove that the Romanian government is just a US puppet?). That Romania has taken a suicidal path by allowing the installation of US missiles on her territory seems clear......
........In Romania I wanted more than anything else to see Fr Iustin Parvu. Aged 93, the last great spiritual father in Romania, he receives pilgrims every day, from 6 pm onwards. I arrived at the monastery at 4 pm and I had to put my name on a list. I was already at the end of the list, more than 200 people...
I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of young people waiting, many families with small children. Two nuns sat by the door of the cell of Fr Iustin, reading from the prayers book and one cell attendant checked regularly on Fr Iustin.
My time to go inside was around 11.30 pm, and in all this time, Fr Iustin did not get a break! From where did he have the energy? When I went inside, I was overwhelmed by his beauty! The beauty of his face, a saintly face! After me, there were at least other 20 persons...Fr Iustin finished after 1 am...
I visited and a disciple of Fr Iustin, Fr Amfilohie Branza, at Diaconesti Monastery. He is an extraordinary monk who has the courage to tell the truth about the actual state of life in Romania.
I also visited Sihastria...where I went once in 1992. What a disappointment! It has been destroyed...spiritually dead...only nice walls, new church, new bell tower with the Masonic EYE on it, lots of tourists coming and going, like bees in a hive...and NOTHING else.
I went to see the house from where Fr Cleopa talked to the masses of people. I knew the house very well because there I had seen him and listened to him. What have they done with it? The house, which contains two rooms and a big veranda, was transformed into a dormitory with bunk beds for tourists! One of the holiest places in the whole monastery, where Fr Cleopa spend every minute of his last years, from where he talked to the masses, receiving people, is now a bedroom for tourists! And next to this house, his cell, locked away, with a photo of the father...
Very sad...later on, I found out from other people that some priests from heterodox denominations came to Sihastria and wanted to celebrate some rituals in the old church, saying that it was in honour of Fr Cleopa. NOBODY stopped them, only one old monk who stood in the door of the church and blocked their way, saying that only over his body would they celebrate their rituals there! After few days the old monk was transferred by the abbot to another monastery, Bistrita...
Neamt Monastery, the flower of Moldavian monasticism, is only a ruin, with no life in it. The monastery was altered in the XIX century with a new neoclassical style church and other building of Catholic architectural influence and one BIG EYE was painted on the bell tower. This EYE is from that century...the new one was painted on the new bell tower in Sihastria only a few years back...
