Basilica News Agency is the official online news service of the Romanian Patriarchate of the Christian Orthodox church. Basilica is part of the BASILICA Press Centre, the communication and public relations department of the Patriarchal Administration.

History

Basilica News Agency was founded on 27 October 2007 and was launched online in

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and English on 16 June 2008. The launch took place in Europa Christiana ( Christian Europe) Hall of the Palace of the Patriarchate in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

. The ceremony was opened with a

Te Deum The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Chur ...

service officiated in the presence of

Patriarch Daniel of Romania Daniel (), born Dan Ilie Ciobotea (; born 22 July 1951), is the Patriarch of All Romania, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The elections took place on 12 September 2007. Daniel won with a majority of 95 votes out of 161 against Bartol ...

. “Christian mission means bringing Christ’s Spirit to the world, into every home, in every institution where we work, to every job, on every path we walk”, the Patriarch said. In 2010, the web interface was updated. In 2012, the website was rebuilt entirely and relaunched during the solemn session of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, held on 28 October 2012. In 2014, the website was updated again and launched on the feast day of the BASILICA Press Centre, on 27 October. The site currently operates on a

WordPress WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...

platform. The current website was launched on 26 March 2016.

Role

The Basilica News Agency presents the activities and attitudes of the Romanian Orthodox Church regarding current problems. News and information are presented in electronic form and contain details regarding church life from home and abroad: activities of the Romanian Patriarch, decisions of the Holy Synod, activities undertaken by

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

s, monasteries,

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es, theological schools and ecclesiastical NGOs, dialogue between Church and society, inter-Orthodox cooperation, inter-confessional and inter-religious dialogues etc."Basilica News Agency..", p. 28;

Logo

The original logo of Basilica News Agency was the same as that of the Basilica Press Centre. This logo presented the Patriarchal Cross surrounded by five concentric circles with different colours (blue, yellow, ruby, emerald and blue chalcedony). These colours represented the five components of the Press Centre. Basilica News Agency was symbolised by emerald. In March 2016, a separate logo was created for the News Agency. The new logo contains the patriarchal cross surrounded by two red semicircles. The patriarchal cross symbolises the dynamics of the Church life in confessing the infinite love of the

Most Holy Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Fa ...

. The two semicircles are symbols of balance, but at the same time bring in mind the idea of movement, of dynamism. The red colour recalls the

blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...

of Christ.

Opinions

Patriarch Daniel Daniel (), born Dan Ilie Ciobotea (; born 22 July 1951), is the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The elections took place on 12 September 2007. Daniel won with a majority of 95 votes out of 161 against Bartolomeu Anania. He was offic ...

called Basilica News Agency a "kaleidoscope of everyday ecclesial reality", "which has fulfilled its vocation to inform and form ecclesial thinking". * News.ro senior editor, Elvira Gheorghiță, about basilica.ro: "You have made genuine values prominent again, through professionalism and dedication". *Realitatea TV producer, George Grigoriu: "Basilica.ro is a useful and accurate source of information; a source of information that addresses the reason, but also nourishes the soul".Gheorghe Anghel - "Thoughts..." * Metropolitan Serafim of Germany: "The news website of the Church aims to faithfully reflect the truth that edifies people, strengthens their faith and encourages them to bear the everyday burdens".Deacon Ştefan Sfarghie (16 June 2015) - "7 years of basilica.ro" in Lumina Newspape
ziarullumina.ro
last accessed 5 September 2017; *Editor in chief Orthodoxie.com, Rev. Fr. Christophe Levalois: "The activity of the Basilica News Agency is an essential service for spreading Orthodoxy in the world today and for bearing an indispensable witness to its presence, activity and dynamics in the society".

References

External links

* {{Romanian Orthodox Church News agencies based in Romania Romanian Orthodox Church