The envoy of the Romanian Patriarchate to the Holy Places, Ioan Meiu, transmitted from Jerusalem how the Catholic Easter is celebrated in the midst of conflict and revealed how the Light could be brought to our country, in the context in which the war in the Middle East could make this difficult.
“From here, from Jerusalem, we are preparing for the celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection. Even so, in these special conditions of alert and war, the alert is raised in Israel to the maximum, that is 9 out of 9. We still have sirens in Jerusalem and in other cities in Israel. Fortunately, most of the rockets are intercepted. Some parts of the intercepted rockets fell, their remains, but without injuring anyone, fortunately, they only caused some minor material damage. Regarding Holy Week, services will be celebrated in a special way this year, similar to the period of the pandemic, when only official delegations, accompanied by hierarchs and priests, entered the Holy Sepulcher”Ioan Meiu declared for Antena 3.
How will the Light reach our country
“About this ceremony we can tell you that, thanks to the insistence of the embassies: the Embassy of Romania and the Embassy of Russia here, from Jerusalem, from the Holy Land, as well as from Tel Aviv, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs opened a special corridor and gave the green light to these special planes, which will fly on Holy Saturday to the Orthodox countries.
With the blessing of the Blessed Father Patriarch Daniel and the blessing of the Blessed Father Theophilus III of Jerusalem, as well as with the help of our embassy here in the Holy Land, and with this green wave received from the Israeli Foreign Ministry, we also prepared this year, even if much more difficult than in other years, to bring the Holy Light to Romania.
Through this special corridor, it will fly on Holy Saturday from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. We hope that the tensions will not escalate and that we will see each other at Otopeni Airport on Saturday evening, with this great blessing of Jerusalem and the Lord’s Tomb”he also said.
He also revealed that this year there will be no Flower processions, nor the famous foot washing procession on Maundy Thursday, nor the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, through the old citadel of Jerusalem to Golgotha.
“So these processions will not be this year. Instead, the services will be held normally and regularly in the Holy Sepulcher. All the services and special services will be held and the bishops and Orthodox clergy will serve at the Holy Sepulcher. Only they will be allowed to enter the Lord’s Sepulcher and Golgotha and the other holy places. Christians who are in the area, be they Romanians, Greeks, Russians, Palestinians, will not have access to none of these services at the Tomb of the Lord nor at the ceremony of lighting the Holy Light on Holy Saturday”he also specified.
