Together for Europe goes to Timisoara
“2023 Culture Capital”
From the 1st of January 2023, the Romanian city of Timisoara is the “2023 Culture Capital”. The official program of the festivities will kick off on February17, 2023. During the entire year the local public institutions will repeatedly commemorate this honorific title. The Churches, too, will oblige.
Following the invitation of the Catholic bishop of the city, Mgr. Iosif Csaba Pál, the group of Friends of Together for Europe has willingly chosen Timisoara for their annual November meeting. After all, Timisoara is a multi-confessional, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural city. The city is situated on the borders of East and West, in the Romania-Hungary-Serbia triangle. The bishop stated: “Your presence will allow Romania to appreciate the beauty of the Christian faith”. Also, one of the organizers said: “The participants coming from the Together for Europe Western countries need the experience of their friends from the Eastern European countries to be able to discover ever more the Christian roots of Europe”. A young Romanian Orthodox journalist, member of the inter-confessional preparatory team in Timisoara, affirmed: “We are so diverse, and yet, interiorly, we are so close”. We need to bear witness to our sole faith in Christ. The past political tensions ought to play second fiddle.
Gérard Testard (Efesia) was, until recently, a member of the Steering Committee of Together for Europe; he summed it up thus: “We follow in the footsteps of the Founders of Europe and of all those who, along the years, never accepted conflicts as a fatality, but did their utmost to knock down barriers”.
The aim of Together for Europe Timisoara 2023 is to see that the fraternity in Christ becomes ever more a visible realty.
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Canva