The Wealth of the Romanian Orthodox Church

Original Romanian title: Averea bisericii



An inquiry into the wealth and privileges of the Romanian Orthodox Church, aired March 30, 2011, by TVR1, the first channel of the Romanian national television, presented by Cornel Mihalache.

The show consisted of a filmed report and commentaries made by the presenter and his four guests:

• Remus Cernea, president of the Romanian Humanist Association;
• Mirela Corlățan, journalist, writing for the Evenimentul Zilei daily newspaper;
• Father Alexandru Moțoc, General Church Inspector at the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchy;
• Sorin Frunză, director of the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs.

NOTE: Subtitles are available in both English and Romanian. Just click the "CC" button if they don't show automatically or if they show in the wrong language.

The material is, as far as I know, one of the very few filmed in Romania during the last decade or so, where the Romanian Orthodox Church is treated anything but great reverence and depicted as anything but the savior of our whole society. Even more notably, it was aired on the national television, which is notoriously subservient to the Church.

The church, on the other hand, even though it enjoys victimizing itself, is nowhere near being a victim of circumstances or church-haters or whatever, as it so often claims. On the contrary, not only is there no clear separation of Church and State in Romania, but the Church is being funded by the state, as well as given numerous privileges — some by law and in plain sight, some not quite. What’s shown in the 70 minutes, the total duration of all five parts, is only the tip of the iceberg.

I have created a playlist with all five parts of the show, as follows, which you can access at http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B9A316F9BC929581 or http://bit.ly/church-wealth-playlist

Also, here are the five individual parts:

• Part 1 - http://youtu.be/SMGz7yVasWo
• Part 2 - http://youtu.be/-UHP9XcDoMw
• Part 3 - http://youtu.be/2Z2BUh9ZPDA
• Part 4 - http://youtu.be/1ABVebz3XSM
• Part 5 - http://youtu.be/mGpo7_lIz4I

If you need the subtitles files, you can download them in .SRT format on my blog, CaveatLector.eu
(Of course, you're welcome to visit the blog even if you're not looking for the subtitling.)

Last but not least, many thanks to the Youtube user EkemTV, who recorded and initially uploaded the show, and to Lucian a.k.a. Vilo13 who brought it to my attention.