The Orthodox Diocese of Covasna and Harghita donated 10 tons of potatoes to the Miercurea Ciuc city council to prepare meals for the Roma people temporarily accommodated in the city sports hall. They were taken in after a fire destroyed their houses in January.
Bishop Andrei of Covasna and Harghita declared for Romania’s national news agency Agerpres that the diocese made a gesture of interethnical and interconfessional solidarity, because “we are athletes of God” and need to extend a helping hand to our neighbours.
“It hurt our souls to see what happened. For, as the Scripture says it, Pray that your flight will not take place in winter: the next day after the Epiphany, they took refuge only with the clothes they were wearing as possessions,” the hierarch said.
“It hurts, because they were made in the image and likeness of God, they are our brothers in our city. Together with the other religious confessions, we have extended a helping hand, to be lovers of our neighbours and lovers of God. If we love God, Whom we do not see, how not to love our neighbour?”
On January 7, more than 20 wooden houses were partially or totally burned in a fire which affected the Roma community from Miercurea Ciuc city, in central Romania.
Approximately 260 people were left without a place to stay and received emergency accommodation in the city’s sports hall. More than half of them have returned in the community since then.
The Diocese also donated for them clothes, bottled water, dairy products and one-day’s worth of hot meals for 300 people, which were offered by the Orthodox Miercurea Ciuc Deanery, with the support of parish priests.
The Orthodox Diocese of Covasna and Harghita runs multiple projects for vulnerable social categories. For many years, it offered hot meals to dozens of the Roma students from Topliţa, on a project to prevent early school leaving.
— Photo source: WeRadio / basilica.ro