Patriarch Daniel urges support for Romanian families abroad on Migrants’ Sunday

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church has called for stronger spiritual and family ties with Romanians living abroad, saying Orthodox parishes in the diaspora have become places where migrants can preserve their faith, language and cultural identity.

In a message for the Sunday of Romanian Migrants, observed this year on 16 August, the Patriarch said the Church remembers in prayer those who have left Romania temporarily or permanently, as well as families separated by migration, children who remain at home and parents awaiting the return of their sons and daughters.

“Romanian Orthodox parishes outside Romania have become true spiritual homes, places where the Orthodox faith, the Romanian language and Romanian traditions are preserved and passed on to children and young people,” Patriarch Daniel said. “In church, Romanians living abroad feel at home.”

The Romanian Orthodox Church has observed the Sunday of Romanian Migrants on the first Sunday after the Dormition of the Mother of God since 2009, building on an initiative launched three years earlier in the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina.

Romanians living abroad feel at home in church…