Romanian religious affairs official urges Orthodox youth to turn careers into vocations

“The Church and society need you, not for what you will become years from now, but for what you bring today,” State Secretary for Religious Affairs Ciprian Olinici told participants at the opening of the 2026 International Meeting of Orthodox Youth in Bucharest on Tuesday.

The Romanian official reflected on the significance of the young people’s presence at the National Cathedral, which he described as “a place that gathers the memory and faith of a people” and which, for several days, “allows itself to be inhabited by its youth”.

“Some places are built for one generation, while others are built for generations. The National Cathedral is such a building.”

“Perhaps this is also one of the meanings or purposes of a cathedral: not merely to have room for those who come, but to make room for them. Not merely to preserve what has been, but to remain open to something that is beginning,” the State Secretary for Religious Affairs added.

Ciprian Olinici also explained that the National Cathedral is itself “young”, and that its history begins with the journeys of people who are themselves at the beginning of their lives.

“What we inherit remains alive not because we repeat it,…