Mr. Soltész Miklós, Hungary’s Secretary of State for Churches, Minorities, and Civil Affairs, was received by Patriarchal Auxiliary Bishop Varlaam of Ploiești at the Patriarchal Palace on July 19.
After visiting the Patriarchal Cathedral and Palace, the Hungarian delegation was welcomed at Saint Nicetas of Remesiana Salon at the Patriarchal Palace, where discussions were held on topics of common interest.
Mr. Botond Zákonyi, Ambassador of Hungary to Bucharest, Mr. Ciprian-Vasile Olinici, Secretary of State for Religious Affairs from Romania, and Father Valentin Fătu, Patriarchal Counselor, attended the meeting.
At the end of the meeting, Budapest’s Secretary of State for Religious Affairs gave statements to reporters from the Basilica Media Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate.
“We discussed in detail the projects and opportunities for the involvement of religious communities in the social and educational fields. We discussed how these activities are financed in Hungary and Romania and how this type of collaboration works. We are doing very well compared to Western countries in this context, but we still have a lot of work to do,” said Mr. Soltész Miklós.
“This is the big question for the future: how we can help ensure that our religious communities are as involved as possible in this social mission of education and how we can help our Churches be the main protagonists in this area.”
Patriarch Daniel invited to Budapest
The Hungarian government official expressed his desire for the Patriarch of Romania to visit the capital of Hungary. Such a visit would contribute to developing relations with the Romanian ethnic community in Hungary.
“In this context, we look forward with great pleasure and openness to welcoming His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania to Budapest. We would like to extensively present the excellent and beautiful ways of collaboration with the Romanian community living in Hungary and the Romanian Orthodox community in Hungary.”
“The mission of collaboration and historical reconciliation that we have achieved with both Slovakia and Serbia has mainly been based on the good cooperation started between the religious communities, and we would like to implement the same model with Romania and the Romanian community,” the Hungarian Secretary of State emphasized.
The same day, the State Secretary for Churches, Minorities, and Civil Affairs from Budapest met with Ciprian-Vasile Olinici, the Secretary of State for Religious Affairs from Romania.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
Source: basilica.ro
