Patriarch Daniil reacted to the statements of journalist Christian Tudor Popescu, who would compare the pilgrims who worshiped the relics of Saint Paraskeva in Iasi with the suicide bombers of Hamas. In response, the CTP says that the Bible does not say that the Orthodox should worship relics, which it believes is an insult to Jesus.

Patriarch Daniil: Pilgrimage gives meaning to our lives

In his sermon on the feast of St. Demetrius the New, Patriarch Daniel emphasized that the pilgrimage “gives meaning to our lives” and that “we, the faithful, when we honor the relics of saints, we do not honor the bones – as unprepared, ignorant and unkind – but we meet the person of the saint, the relics which is before us.”

“When we honor holy icons, we honor not the tree, but the person depicted,” said the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

In the first show “Cap la cap” co-created with Anka Simina, exclusively streamed online on the Recorder Talks YouTube channel, CTP referred to believers going on a pilgrimage in which they discussed the conflict in the Middle East.

In a broadcast on October 17, CTP said, referring to the pilgrims from Iaşa, “so the people who think they will be healed, that they will get rich, that I don’t know what else they will get by visiting those relics, are no different from those who who believe that a royal table and 72 virgins await them in heaven.”

The Student League complained about Cristian Tudor Popescu to the National Council Against Discrimination (CNCD) following these claims.

Journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu, in a post titled “Attack on the Relics of St. Paraskeva,” responded to the Student League’s report, saying, “I did not allow myself to hope that what is happening all over the world now starts in the Middle East, it can wake people up, make them more aware, more responsible. But I could not imagine that some would develop in the opposite direction, and that is in Romania, in Iași, the city of culture and intelligence,” says CTP.

According to him, through his CAP-to-CAP show statements made with the RECORDER, he compares “the belief of some people that according to the Koran they are waiting for them in heaven, with the belief of other people that some are mummified human remains can work miracles with them. I don’t say, according to the Bible, because there is no talk about the miraculous role of relics, it was invented later. And I don’t do anything but laugh because I say, also in the show, “Let’s not laugh at those who believe in wine and meat and virgins in heaven because we’re being laughed at.” – after which I make the aforementioned comparison.”

“How could I compare the ACTIONS of the few believers in Islamic heaven who blow themselves up on explosive belts with the peaceful pilgrimage of the faithful of Saint Paraskeva who, after visiting the relics, simply go home? I laughed at the naivety of both categories. That’s it, boys and girls, we were laughing, we didn’t ask for the ban of the cult of St. Paraskeva or the Islamic one,” said Christian Tudor Popescu.

CTP: I see that Shoshoaka, Simeon and journalists who want to see me dead were not enough

After Patriarch Daniil’s veiled address to the CTP from Friday’s sermon, the journalist had a new reaction in a message published on Facebook under the name “Insult of Jesus”, in which he notes that the head of the BOR does not respect his right to opinion and seems to give him religion lesson

• “I see that this was not enough for Soshoake, Simion and journalists who want to see me dead, Patriarch Daniel himself comes forward to condemn the opinion of the undersigned regarding relics and worshiping them. So let’s set ourselves apart as Christians.
• There is not a single phrase in the Bible that encourages or even says anything about worshiping relics. Jesus Christ nowhere says that the remains of the body and bones of any of the apostles and martyrs who will be killed in His name should be preserved and honored. Or those who have great faith in God,” CTP wrote.

The journalist believes that worshiping relics is an insult to Jesus.

• “If you want a saint, a martyr to help you, can’t you honor her memory, her deeds, her remaining words? pray Why do you need dried body parts?
• I saw pilgrims bowing to St. Paraskeva or other saints, being baptized in front of the reliquary. This, in my opinion, is an insult, an insult to Jesus.
• Cross of the Savior. Draw The cross on which He suffered and died cannot be appropriated even by His greatest disciples. Saint Peter refused to be crucified by the Romans, like Jesus, asking to put an upside-down cross on him so as not to touch the Christian symbol. St. Andrew, a Romanian Christian, also wanted the punishment of crucifixion to be on the cross in the shape of the letter X, so as not to reproduce the divine sacrifice in any way,” CTP continued.

Christian Tudor Popescu continues his plea in a message that has gone viral online, citing the Old Testament.

• “In order to be resurrected, every dead Christian must be sown in the ground as a seed – ‘for from dust you were created and to dust you will return.’ At the head of the tomb stands a cross on which is written INRI, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, and nothing else.
• The gesture of worship, the sign of the cross, can only be addressed to Christ. You can worship in front of the Church and inside it, because it is the earthly House of the Lord, the image of the Heavenly.
• You can bow to the cross on priestly vestments. Or a spider with a cross. Not in front of relics that are not crusaders – they should only be kissed, as is done with a husband, wife, children, lover, mistress, a violinist’s forehead or a priest’s hand.
• Although, if you were a true Christian who read line by line and believed in the Holy Scriptures, then you should not touch the corpse, because the Old Testament calls this act impurity, defilement for 7 days,” CTP continues.

Thousands of pilgrims to the relics of St. Dimitriekel Nou

The journalist concludes his message by saying that he wrote all these lines, “looking at the endless queue of people to the relics of St. Demetrius in the Patriarchal courtyard.”

“And ask yourself: Why did God make it so that the place where Moses’ body was taken after death remained unknown?

And ask yourself: why do we still find pilgrimages to shrines only in the godless religion of the Bolsheviks, which is eventually tied to the mummy of Lenin in the heart of the Devil’s Reign?”, asks CTP.

Thousands of believers went to Mitropolska Gora on Friday to bow to the relics of St. Dimitry the New.

The Romanian Patriarchate brought the icon of the Mother of God “Panagia Sumela” from Greece, the Basilica reports.