In the month of August 2021, through God’s grace, our Romanian community from Venezuela and Saints Constantine and Helen Romanian Orthodox Church in Caracas rejoiced at the visit of our dear Father Daniel Ene, who visited us with the blessing of His Eminence, Archbishop and Metropolitan Nicolae.
During this visit, Father Daniel brought to our community a message of profound love, encouragement and generosity, conveying on behalf of our Archbishop His blessings and best wishes.
At the end of the Divine Liturgy that he celebrated together with Father Evangelos (the Parish Priest of the Greek Church in Caracas) and Parish Priest Antonio Garcia, Father Daniel praised the impressive activity of Father Antonio amidst the Venezuelan community and encouraged the efforts for deepening the knowing of Orthodoxy.
Together with the generous donations that our brothers from the US have sent for the repairs and maintenance in good shape of the Church, our community has had the special privilege of having the effort it made for the well-being, preservation and development of the Romanian community in Venezuela recognized, through the bestowing of the American Metropolitan Cross for laity by Father Daniel, on behalf of HE Metropolitan Nicolae, to Messrs. Denu Teodor Niculescu Boiu and Constantin Cristescu.
After the Divine Liturgy, Father Daniel participated at the agape meal, where, by sharing the same food, he demonstrated the close, brotherly bonds with the community of this place.
During his visit, Father Daniel, accompanied by the President of the Parish Council, Mr. Denu Niculescu, and Father Antonio, inspected the Church and found out that there is an urgent need of replacing the roof, which has been visibly damaged over the past years; afterwards, he also supervised the inventorying of the material goods and liturgical objects. The pastoral visit represented a great blessing and joy for our community, by experiencing the aid of the brothers from the North American continent and the care of His Eminence.
During the same visit, Father Daniel had meetings with the representative of the Greek Church, Father Evangelos, and with Father Pablo of the Serbian Church.
Journeying alongside Father Daniel in Venezuela were also Mr. Mihail Stănescu, the Romanian Consul in Bogota, Columbia, and Mrs. Alina Dociu, the Romanian Consul in Miami, Florida. During these same days, they organized an itinerant consulate meant for solving the juridical issues of Romanian citizens living in Venezuela; this is because the Romanian embassy in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ceased to exist a few years ago.
An important moment in Father Daniel’s trip in this part of the world was the visit in Cúcuta, Columbia, at the border with Venezuela. Since the month of March, this forgotten corner of the world has had a special place in the heart of Father Daniel. Now, he came back, visiting the Venezuelan refugee camps and trying to get to know their needs, together with HG Timoteo Luis Antonio Torres Esquivel, Bishop of Assos – Vicar for Columbia and Venezuela of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis in Mexico, Central America, Columbia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean Islands (Ecumenical Patriarchate). Father Daniel also visited Saint John the Baptist Orthodox Church of Cúcuta, and the good-hearted Father Alejandro El Brihi. Many are the needs and hard are the images with which Father left Cúcuta, though not before offering aid on behalf of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas to more than twenty families of refugees living in poverty and abandonment. Father Daniel promised that he would return and that he would try to intermediate IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) projects in Cúcuta.
With God’s help, we hope that he will visit us soon, bringing us the same blessings and joys. Our community appreciates all the advice and pleasant moments that we have spent together and we hope that they will happen more often in the future.
God is good!
Father Antonio Gerardo Garcia (Caracas –Venezuela)
