Romanian identity in post-Brexit Europe
- The Romanians from the Parish „St. Veronica ”, Coventry, Great Britain
by Dr. Arina Cirstea
The Romanian community in Great Britain still feels the shock waves produced by the recent referendum, in which 52% of the electorate chose to withdraw this country from the European Union. For many members of this community, contradictory discussions have given rise to concrete concerns, such as uncertainty about the future of staff or those close to them, or the wave of animosity towards immigrants, materialized in some places by acts of vandalism, including shops Romanian products. The multicultural spirit, a feature of British society in recent decades, has not been denied, but the wave of negativity has been offset at least to some extent by calls for respect and tolerance from the authorities and the spontaneous gestures of local communities. . The latter have shown solidarity with the victims of these aggressions by raising funds or showing sympathy.
In this tumultuous context, in the town of Coventry in central England, the Romanian community gathered on Saturday, July 9, to mark the 2nd anniversary of the official establishment of the Romanian Orthodox parish in the town, and to celebrate in advance St. Veronica (July 12), the patron saint of this parishes. All this time, the parish tried to assert itself as a small island of Romanian Orthodoxy and identity, but at the same time to strengthen its ties with neighboring Christian communities, an intention symbolized by participating in the event, along with the guest of honor, PS Ignatie Mureșan, Bishop-Vicar of Spain and Portugal, of some representatives of the Romanian, Greek and Serbian Orthodox parishes in the area. On the other hand, the presence of the mayor of the locality, Lord Mayor Lindsley Harvard, can be seen as a symbolic act by the authorities to promote relations with Romanians established in Great Britain. His message was as direct as possible; Although the Coventry electorate supported with 55% of the vote the withdrawal of Great Britain from the European Union (thus a higher percentage than the national average), he assured those present that, from the point of view of the Local Council, the strong attribute of the city remains the structure. its multicultural and cosmopolitan. For this reason, Romanian citizens have been and remain welcome to live and work in this city. This message was received with appreciation by both the parish priest, Fr. Cornel Grecu, as well as PS Ignatie, who expressed his hope that the spirit of tolerance will continue to govern British society.
The exhortation to tolerance and love for one's fellow man was, moreover, the main theme of the speech given by St. Ignatius after the Holy Mass, which was performed with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Father Iosif of Western and Southern Europe. Starting from the Savior's exhortation to the sick man whom he had healed of leprosy - "be careful not to tell anyone" (Matthew 8: 4) - the hierarch emphasized that discretion is one of the most important Christian virtues. In its interpretation, discretion refers primarily to our ability to practice virtue selflessly, without pride, not to condition our acts of charity on certain manifestations of gratitude or any reward of a material or social nature. Support for this interpretation comes from the biblical text itself: "But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret" (Matthew 6: 3-4). The relatively simple principle is also recognized in modern philosophy as a sign of authentic morality, and is reflected, for example, in the concept of "categorical imperative" introduced by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. The categorical imperative is defined as an act that represents a necessity in itself, unconditioned by no other purpose; Returning to the example above, only when we discreetly help our fellows do we perform an act of pure morality, because we are motivated exclusively by the desire to do good to the other, and we are fully aware that we will not gain any personal benefit, such as increasing social capital (in other words, admiration or respect for others).
As a Christian virtue, however, discretion can be viewed from another perspective. PS Ignatius suggested that an important aspect of discretion also refers to our ability to be tolerant of the mistakes made by others voluntarily or involuntarily, to remain silent about the offenses they have brought us, in particular. a word to avoid publicly criticizing one's faults. The Christian's response, in all these situations, should be based on tolerance and prayer. Mainly through sincere prayer for those responsible for such acts, the aim is not to claim the insult suffered, but a much more important goal, their moral rehabilitation. It is thus clear that this aspect of discretion could also be classified as a "categorical imperative", insofar as the motivation for our actions is purely altruistic, and even undermines what could be strictly defined as our personal interest (e.g. , immediate claim of the offense). In this way, by practicing discretion both in its predominantly active dimension, of selfless charitable action, and in the passive one, of tolerance intertwined with prayer, we can hope to reach the standard of Christian morality embedded in the biblical text, and implicitly contribute to saving souls. to our fellow men.
"May the Lord help us" - concluded PS Ignatie - "to learn discretion, because a discreet man always has the light in his soul, he is careful not to hurt others". This message seems all the more significant to me in the context of current political events. As Romanians settled in the UK, it is difficult to remain indifferent to the predominantly negative discourse in the media about immigration from European Union countries. Moreover, when Romanian citizens become the direct target of xenophobic attacks, the call for discretion and tolerance seems almost impossible to follow. However, if we look at this situation in terms of global current events, it is obvious that the alternatives are extremely harmful, not only from a moral point of view, but also politically. Recent conflicts in many countries around the world show that the response to xenophobia or racism can be aggressive, in which the victim becomes an aggressor, and thus the circle of violence is perpetuated indefinitely. Initiatives that seemed to aim at regaining national or racial dignity became sources of coercion and eventually aggression, in fact depriving them of freedom of choice, and implicitly of dignity, not only members of communities perceived as different, but also members their own communities. The premise from which all these movements started is diametrically opposed to the Christian principle of tolerance; they are based on the hyperbolization of the negative attributes of certain groups or communities, which can only result in more intolerance, undermining in the long run the ability of these groups to coexist peacefully. So, if we can keep the light of tolerance in the face of adversity, given that we do not "hurt others" despite their behavior, we will act according to Christian morality, but we will also fulfill a political goal.
On the other hand, it is extremely harmful and an alternative to denigrate one's own community, by assuming the negative attributes imposed from the outside. These attributes are often based on arbitrary criteria, which do not stand up to closer examination. We can ask ourselves, for example: is the act of migration itself a negative one? The subject is very complex, and probably each of us has already formed an opinion in this regard. Without going into detail on the arguments that are well-known to you, I would like to propose to you the examination of this subject from a somewhat unique perspective. Not long ago, our Church celebrated the Sunday of the Romanian Saints (the second Sunday after the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit); on this occasion, the Akathist of the Romanian Saints was read, and what caught my attention was the mention of some saints who were not born and, in some cases, never lived in Romania. In general, the Lives of the Saints record that many of them lived, at certain stages of their lives, in different parts of the world and left their mark on several communities; for example, the first saint mentioned in the mentioned Akathist is St. Andrew the Apostle, who, originally a Jew, is considered the protector of Romania but also of Scotland. Another conclusive example is a saint dear to me, St. Parascheva of Iasi, who, born near Constantinople, the then capital of the Byzantine Empire, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and then spent a long time in a convent of nuns. from the wilderness of the Jordan; after the saint fell asleep, his relics were housed in turn by several churches in present-day Bulgaria and Serbia, eventually reaching Moldova. The example of these saints, of the way in which they were integrated into the national being of several peoples, suggests that national identity can be fluid; it is not limited to objective and immutable data such as place of birth or mother tongue, but may in fact be the result of our interpretation. In fact, this principle is almost unanimously recognized in contemporary cultural studies; for example, in a famous 1983 study, Benedict Anderson defined the nation as an “imagined political community,” whose identity is actively created by its members through variations of nationalist discourse.
Also, in the case of the Romanian saints, it is obvious that migration was a beneficial phenomenon, through which they contributed to the spiritual enlightenment of several communities, and implicitly facilitated communication. interethnic and intercultural. For all these reasons, I believe that there are no strong arguments to automatically categorize the act of migration as negative. An incursion into the history of any nation, into the family tree of any family, and even recent research in the field of genetic history conclusively demonstrates that the identity of any ethnic group has been and continues to be intertwined with that of others. Consequently, I would like to end this article with the suggestion that for us, Romanians established outside the country's borders, what prevails is the way we choose to leave our mark on the communities in which we live. Just as the identity of the Romanian saints is not conditioned by their ethnicity, but subordinated to another identity, much more comprehensive, that of a Christian, the act of migration does not define us either; but it defines the way we try or not to live with "light in our souls", being careful not to hurt others.