After his meetings with top State officials, Fra’ Matthew Festing had numerous engagements during the second part of his visit to Romania. After attending a religious function in the Nunciature of the Archbishop of Bucharest Ioan Robu together with members and volunteers of SAMR, the Order’s Romanian Relief Corps, the Grand Master met with the volunteers who gave a presentation of their welfare activities.
Romanian Relief Corps
Immediately after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Order of Malta set up a volunteer corps, Serviciul de Ajutor Maltez în România (SAMR) to help the Romanian population. Twenty years later, the Order’s corps now numbers 23 delegations, 1,400 volunteers and 62 employees. It is involved in some 100 welfare programmes benefitting over 4000 people including the homeless, abandoned children, disabled young people and the elderly. The corps organizes first-aid courses, ambulance services and health centres for the poor. After last summer’s serious floods, causing deaths and forcing tens of thousands to be evacuated, the volunteers provided healthcare, food and shelters for the homeless.
Romanian Relief Corps Celebrates its 20th Anniversary
In Covasna county, Transylvania, the Grand Master took part in the celebrations for the Order of Malta’s Relief Corps’ 20 years of activities in Romania. During these celebrations the Romanian Ambassador to the Order of Malta, H.E. Bogdan Tataru-Cazaban, awarded the National Order Of Merit conferred by the President of Romania Traian Basescu to SAMR.
The Grand Master also visited one of the Order’s special projects in Romania: the multifunctional youth centre in Micfalau, Covasna. The centre runs summer camps and welfare programmes for the disabled young and for children from disadvantaged families. The centre also provides first-aid training for the Order’s volunteers.
Pilgrimages to Şumuleu Ciuc.
At the end of his time in Romania, on Saturday 11 June, the Grand Master with members and volunteers of the Order’s Romanian and Hungarian Associations participated in the annual Catholic Pentecost pilgrimage to Şumuleu Ciuc in east Transylvania. A holy site since 1567, the Pentecost pilgrimage is considered the most important in central and eastern Europe. Over 120,000 people attended the open-air Mass this year.
