Politics, national symbols and the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral

Abstract

Among religious denominations in Romania, the dominant Orthodox Church has been the closest to the state, often positioning itself in opposition to the budding civil society. The prolonged negotiations for a location in downtown Bucharest suitable for the new Orthodox Cathedral for National Salvation best illustrate the interactions between different segments of the political class, the Orthodox Church, and a variety of civil society groups seeking to define the public space and the country's new democracy. They further illustrate how contesting actors use the recent past to define the politics of the present.

Notes

Research for this article was generously funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through a standard research grant. We thank Sabina Stan for data collection, Justin Penny for his style suggestions, and Justina Sora, Gabriel and Liviu Andreescu for making some material available to us.

¹In addition to published sources this article draws on interviews conducted during the 2003 – 05 period by Dr Lucian Turcescu. The following individuals were interviewed: Metropolitan Daniel Ciobotea of Moldova, 11 June 2004, 6 October 2005, Iasi (Orthodox); Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu of Banat, 12 June 2004, Timisoara (Orthodox); Bishop Andrei Andreicut of Alba Iulia, 10 July 2003, Alba Iulia (Orthodox); Msgr. Victor Blasutti of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest, 7 July 2003, Bucharest (Roman Catholic); Bishop Florian Crihalmeanu of the Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj, 9 July 2003, Cluj (Greek Catholic); Archbishop Nicolae Condrea of Canada and North America, 8 July 2003, Bucharest (Orthodox); Professor Alexandru Stan, Faculty of Theology, University of Bucharest, 12 July 2003, Bucharest (Orthodox); Father Emil Botos, 10 July 2003, Alba Iulia (Orthodox); Father Dan Sandu, 10 – 11 June 2004, 5 October 2005, Iasi (Orthodox).

² Evenimentul Zilei, 4 September 2004. This statistic refers to Valea Plopului village, Prahova county—a village that is too small to feature on the Collins Road Atlas Europe (2005).

³The church housed the relics of Saint Dumitru Basarabov, the thirteenth century Bulgarian ascetic, recognised as Bucharest's patron. The church initially belonged to a monastery that was founded by the Wallachian ruler Serban Basarab in 1655.

⁴At the turn of the twentieth century, the park was redesigned by French architect Ernest Redont and the founders of the Romanian school of architecture, Ion Berindei, Stefan Burcus and Vasile Stefanescu (Ion 2003, pp. 117 – 121).

⁵Recent information has revealed the significant role of Patriarch Iustinian in the defence of local churches. According to Ciachir, in the late 1950s the communist authorities wanted to destroy the Saint Leon church in Bucharest, but reversed their decision after Patriarch Iustinian threatened to alert Western governments and international courts. Despite his courage to stand up to the Minister of Culture, Iustinian went down in history as the Red Patriarch (Rompress, 4 January 1990).

⁶A symbol of centralised political power, the House of the People was seen by one French visitor as a ‘communist Versailles, Mussolini's dream’, dedicated less to the Romanian people and more to Ceausescu (Blanchet 1988).

⁷The design competition for the House of the People was won by 25-year-old Anca Petrescu who had just completed architecture school. Petrescu conceived a building 86 metres high and 276 metres long covering an area of 6.3 hectares, which required the destruction of the Uranium, Antim and Rahova, some of Bucharest's oldest districts. Petrescu readily accepted Ceausescu's changes and made no attempt to integrate the building to its environment or preserve the surrounding areas. Ceausescu constantly improved on and embellished the project, which became his obsession. Together with his wife Elena, Ceausescu visited the construction site every Sunday morning. However, he never used the building, whose final touches were added after his December 1989 demise, when it became home to the lower Chamber of Deputies.

⁸ Adevarul, 23 March 2004.

⁹ Evenimentul Zilei, 15 March 2005.

¹⁰ Evenimentul Zilei, 31 October 2004. A proposal to dedicate the cathedral to Heroes’ Day also came under fire. In the Orthodox tradition, places of worship are usually dedicated to a patron saint (for example, Saint Andrew, the Apostle who allegedly evangelised the Romanians) or religious celebration (the Assumption of the Virgin Mary), not a political event of little religious relevance such as Heroes’ Day. From 1920 to 1948, Heroes’ Day was celebrated on Ascension Day (40 days after Easter) to commemorate all the soldiers lost in war and buried in Romania, regardless of their nationality. Communist authorities decided to make 9 May Heroes’ Day, but after 1989, celebrations were again organised on the Ascension of the Lord Day, ‘in keeping with Romanian tradition’[Ministry of National Defence (2005), available at: www.mapn.ro/traditii/ziuaeroilor.htm, accessed 10 January 2005].

¹¹ Ziarul de Iasi, 30 November 2005.

¹² Evenimentul Zilei, 15 March 2005.

¹³‘Catedrala Neamului’, 22, 7 – 13 October 1997, pp. 10 – 11.

¹⁴Nevertheless, the Orthodox Church saw fit to state its claim over the construction site by promptly warning that, according to church law, those who transferred the plot of land destined for a church to other purposes would be anathematised, and only the Synod could lift the ban. The Orthodox Church had used anathema for the first time in decades to quell adversaries, but this was not the first time Orthodox clergymen forcefully designated the location of a new church.

¹⁵ Ziarul de Iasi, 15 February 1999.

¹⁶ Romania Libera, 30 July and 3 August 2002; Ziua, 7 May 2003.

¹⁷ Adevarul, 23 March 2004.

¹⁸ Ziua, 30 April, 7 and 12 May and 5 June 2003; Cotidianul, 24 June 2003.

¹⁹Website available at: http://www.pmb.ro, accessed 2 November 2005.

²⁰ Ziua, 18 February and 15 March 2004; Adevarul, 21 February 2004.

²¹ Ziua, 18 March 2004.

²² Evenimentul Zilei, 22 March 2004.

²³ Ziarul de Iasi, 16 April 2004.

²⁵ Ziua, 17 March 2005.

²⁴ Romania libera, 17 April 2004.

²⁷ Adevarul, 23 March 2004.

²⁶ Ziua, 23 February 2005.

²⁸ Ziua, 22 March 2004.

²⁹ Ziua, 21 May 2004.

³⁰ Ziua, 19 April 2004.

³¹ Informatia, 22 March 2004.

³² Curierul national, 16 April 2004.

³³ Adevarul, 20 March 2004.

³⁴ Evenimentul Zilei, 19 April 2004.

³⁵ Romania Libera, 16 October 2004; Ziua, 8 and 25 October 2004.

³⁶ Ziua, 22 April 2004.

³⁷ Adevarul, 23 March 2004.

³⁸ Romania Libera, 27 March 2004.

³⁹ Ziua, 17 December 2004.