In this week’s news from the Eastern Churches, produced in collaboration with L’Œuvre d’Orient: The new Romanian Greek Catholic Major Archbishop is installed, a report looks at church funding in Lebanon, and the world marks RedWeek2025.
Hello and welcome to News from the Orient, our weekly update on Eastern Christians
Installation Mass of Claudiu Pop
On November 15, in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches, Claudiu-Lucian Pop was installed as Major Archbishop of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church in Blaj. Around a thousand faithful and priests took part in the celebration and the new archbhisop received the insignia of his office. In a message, he expressed his desire to strengthen the unity of his Church, deepen communion with Rome, and foster cooperation with all the country’s religious denominations. He succeeds Cardinal Lucian Mureșan, who died in September.
New report on church funding in Lebanon
This weekend, the French Catholic charity L’Œuvre d’Orient presented a troubling report. Based on two years of investigation, it suggests that Lebanese authorities never paid millions of dollars owed to institutions tasked with public-interest missions. Schools, hospitals, and centres for people with disabilities, have been deprived of subsidies guaranteed by contract. During the presentation, numerous groups — including Muslim and Druze organisations — testified to the dramatic consequences of this failure. Today, many Christian institutions in Lebanon find themselves in critical financial condition, to the detriment of those they serve.
RedWeek2025
More than half a million people are expected to take part in RedWeek 2025, organised by Aid to the Church in Need International. Over 600 churches, as well as the European Parliament in Brussels, will be illuminated in red to highlight the importance of faith and religious freedom. Times of prayer and public events will aim to raise awareness of the situation. According to ACN’s latest report, 413 million Christians currently live in countries where religious freedom is severely restricted. Often minorities in their homelands and exposed to conflicts, Christians in the Middle East are among the first to suffer discrimination and sometimes even persecution because of their faith.
