Pope Francis arrived in Bucharest on Friday at the start of a three-day pilgrimage to majority-Orthodox Romania.
On his first day, Francis was expected to meet Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, whose Social Democratic Party, or PSD, was defeated during the European Parliament elections and whose leader, Liviu Dragnea, was taken to jail for corruption on Monday.
The last time a Pope celebrated Mass in the Cathedral of St Joseph in Bucharest was on the 8th of May 1999. That was exactly 20 years ago, and the Pope was St John Paul II.
On Friday afternoon, Pope Francis celebrated his first Mass in Romania and reflected on the feast of the day: the Visitation of Our Lady to her cousin Elizabeth. In his homily, he invited us to contemplate what he called three precious elements: “Mary journeys, Mary encounters, Mary rejoices”.
Since the majority of Romanians are Orthodox. in Bucharest, the pope visited the headquarters of the Orthodox Patriarchate.
He privately met with Patriarch Daniel, and then with the bishops of the patriarch’s “Permanent Synod.”
They spoke under a plaque that remembered John Paul II’s visit, Pope Francis’ predecessor. Patriarch Teoctist Daniel recalled that they both had lived under Communist rule.
The pope also spoke about that visit. He stressed that when the Communist regime persecuted and executed the Christians, it did not distinguish whether they were Catholic or Orthodox. It is the blood of that martyrdom which joins the two confessions.
