Vida Metropolitan Daniil was elected as new Bulgarian patriarch with the votes of 69 delegates. Metropolitan Grigory of Vratsa received 66. Three ballots were invalid. The election lasted three hours and 138 delegates of the Patriarchal Electoral Council took part in it. What to expect… The theologian Dr. Kliment Hristov spoke before FACTS.
- Mr. Hristov, congratulations to the new Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil. What do you expect from him?
- In fact, the church is the bearer and guardian of faith and values, of traditions and sustainability, and in this regard the expectations for any drastic changes are not justified – for it to be somehow “modern“, they do not correspond to the essence of the church.
It is extremely important to preserve and promote faith, hope, love, understanding, because in our society it is seen that people grumble and complain precisely because of the lack of values, their neglect and neglect, the feeling of injustice.
Visibly at all times there is a need for morality, for values, for faith.
And we – people, we don't stop looking for them. The church is also a unifier, precisely through faith and values. Through them, she is also the guardian of peace in a society. It is the church that we can rely on for a peaceful, philanthropic solution where humans do not find enough humility. Today, more than ever, dialogue must be encouraged.
- What does the new patriarch Daniel inherit from his predecessor Neophyte?
- Back in time during the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in 1953, we are talking about a period in which religion was defined as an official opponent. The main goal of the Patriarchs Cyril and Maximus was to preserve what was possible in the church within this state. Their goal was to preserve the church itself. Not just the clergy, but the faithful as well. After that, grandfather Maxim had to start the transition when our church experienced its division. This was a very serious problem because the time of the partition brought a lot of turmoil and prevented it from trying to recover faster from the totalitarian period. Patriarch Maxim managed to pass through this stage as well, and after him Patriarch Neofitus, with his patience, meekness and humility, set an example of pacification. Now Patriarch Daniel inherits a church that has overcome these challenges. Other challenges remain before him, which are connected to a much greater extent with the deployment and restoration of the church's activities towards the believers themselves, towards the much larger part of the people.
- And the fact that he was elected with a minimal margin over Gregory, does it mean that there were two worthy ones, or was there also a clash of the lobby in the Holy Synod?
- There is no way to compare the election in the church with what we find in politics – a clash of lobbies, of interests, of prominent confrontations. I would not say that there is a lobby in the Holy Synod. There are relationships there that are due to something completely different. For example, many of the clergy have a common “origin” because they may have a common spiritual father, a common spiritual elder when they became monks. Grandfather Grigoriy Vrachanski and grandfather Daniil Vidinski, who were two of the three proposed for the election of the patriarch, are spiritual brothers under the wing of the late Nevrokop Metropolitan Natanail.
In the end, the three candidates were appointed - as it should be by the appropriate majority, by the Holy Synod.
What should be noted is that the difference with politics is that the election in the church goes in a completely different direction. In politics, one is looking for a leader, some kind of leader, but with the condition that the leader in the political situation is temporary, that is, he is tied to whether he will be re-elected, has some mandate and will work for a certain period of time. In church selection, something completely different is sought. The choice is final. A metropolitan is elected for life. A patriarch is also elected for life until he dies. From this point of view, in the church, the choice has a different dimension and a consensus figure is always sought. This is due to another reason - as a teaching, as values, the church strives for peace in general, and through this peace man grows for salvation, to become better.
So the Holy Synod is looking for the most consensus figure, that is, the person who most people accept as the most consensual in the broadest sense, with whom they will go a long way and work dialogically.
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And this is because the patriarch is no different from other metropolitans. The metropolitan in Bulgaria is an administrative position, and the spiritual rank is a bishop. All metropolitans are bishops. There are bishops who do not have an administrative area, but manage a certain monastery or are assistants to a bishop. Metropolitans are bishops who already rule an administrative area – your diocese. So the patriarch is first among equals, because he is the president of the Holy Synod and Metropolitan of Sofia, but he has the same rights as other metropolitans.
He is, of course, also an external representative of the church. I emphasize to the general public that the patriarch cannot interfere in the work of the metropolitans in their dioceses. There they are independent. So in choosing a patriarch, one is looking for a consensus figure who will work best, because the purpose of the church is to seek peace. And the decisions of the Holy Synod are taken at meetings and by majority vote.
The fact that Patriarch Daniel was elected with a margin of 3-4 votes indicates that there was a serious choice between two candidates with high qualities and worthy to be first among equals. It is also important that no one disputes the choice in any form, as happened before. This once again confirms the above, that our church is institutionally stable.
It is important now to give the new patriarch time because some people have been quick to express doubts and concerns. But his path thus far has been that of a blameless monk. Let's just give it time – until now he was a local bishop, mainly connected with his diocese in North-West Bulgaria. From now on, the whole society and media will watch his every action closely. But he should at least get to know the people and the environment in his new diocese.
In the end, let us say that probably the election of Patriarch Daniel was unexpected for many people, but according to church teaching, it is not only a human choice, but a choice from above.
Patriarch Daniil inherited the meekness and humility of the late grandfather Neofit and has already given a request to continue in this spirit, as his first words before the Divine Holy Liturgy in the Patriarchal Cathedral “St. Alexander Nevsky“ were that he would seek agreement and unity in his ministry. I believe that with God's help this very goal will be achieved for our entire society.