Cardinal Lucian congratulated by Pope Francis and President Klaus Iohannis

On Sunday, Pope Francis and President Klaus Iohannis congratulated Cardinal Lucian, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek Catholic, on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Cardinal Lucian, who officiated the Holy Mass on Sunday at the "Holy Trinity" Cathedral in Blaj, together with a council of high hierarchs and priests of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek Catholic, was congratulated at the end, through messages from the Sovereign Pontiff and the President of Romania. "On the occasion of his 90th birthday, I address to His Beatitude the most sincere congratulations by recalling his long and zealous service of the Gospel, as well as his zealous loyalty toward Christ and the Church, and I invoke on His Beatitude, through the Blessed Virgin Mary, a renewed outpouring of heavenly gifts and, at the same time, I heartily convey to him the apostolic blessing, which I gladly share with those entrusted to his pastoral ministry," Pope Francis said in a message read by the Auxiliary Bishop of the Alba Iulia and Fagaras Archdiocese, Cristian Crisan. President Klaus Iohannis also congratulated Cardinal Lucian on the anniversary of his venerable 90th birthday. The head of state conveyed to him his "warmest" wishes for health, joy, and spiritual growth. "The life dedicated to the Greek-Catholic community, to the Greek-Catholic believers in Romania, and to the fruitful missionary activity that you have carried out in all these years bears the stamp of the unwavering faith in the vocation entrusted to you by God. Standing by the Church you went through hard times that marked our recent history: the communist persecution and the ban of the Romanian Church United with Rome, the Greek Catholic, the persecution of the faithful, and the martyrdom of its servants. After 1990, you became the privileged witness and fully committee of the rebirth of this historic Church, with freedom and hope, on the horizon of the reopening of the dialogue between the Church and society," said Klaus Iohannis said in his message read by the Dean of the Faculty of Greek-Catholic Theology, priest Cristian Barta. The head of state reminded that, since the Great Union of 1918, consecrated by the efforts of its elite, the Greek Catholic Church has cultivated an important legacy that underlies today's democratic and European Romania, namely Christian values, civic spirit, solidarity, education, and charity. Cardinal Lucian thanked everyone and stressed that he would "humbly" entrust his life, as before, to God and the universal Church and, in particular, to the Greek Catholic Church. AGERPRES (RO - author: Marinela Brumar, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu, EN - editor: Cristina Zaharia)