Monday, January 13th

Aurel Percă replaces Ioan Robu as Metropolitan Archbishop of Bucharest

Aurel Percă became the new Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Bucharest during a Holy Mass in the Romanian capital’s St. Joseph Cathedral on Saturday. Archbishop Percă replaced Archibishop Ioan Robu after Pope Francis accepted his resignation in November 2019. Born in Săbăoani, Romanian north-eastern Neamţ County, Percă is a graduate of the Roman Catholic Theological Institute in Iassy. From 1989 to 1994, he served as rector of the Saint Joseph Seminary of Iasssy only to become vicar-general in 1994. On 29 September 1999, he was appointed as auxiliary bishop of Iassy and titular of diocese of Mauriana.

Romania”s former PEA chief acquitted

The former head of Romania’s Permanent Electoral Authority was acquitted on Monday following a trial opened in 2017. Ana-Maria Pătru, aged 43, was accused of corruption-related crimes by the country’s anticorruption watchdog, the DNA. Accusations included influence peddling and money laundring. Ms. Pătru had also to answer accusations of bribery. She was accused of receiving € 250,000 from a company in exchange of winning a public contract. However, the vedict on Monday is not final. In 2017, Ms. Pătru was also expected to become the head of the Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) at a time when the A-WEB general assembly was scheduled in Bucharest, Romania.

Romanian journalist Cristina Ţopescu dies at 59

Romanian journalist Cristina Ţopescu has died in Tunari, a Bucharest suburb, according to news reported on Sunday. She was 59. A graduate of the Foreign Languages Department of the University in the capital Bucharest, Ms. Ţopescu first became an anchor of the Romanian state television, TVR. After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, Cristina Ţopescu left her TVR position to become reporter with the ProTV, a newly created TV-channel launched some 20 years ago. She then became an anchor of Prima TV before joining politics in April 2013 as a member of the left-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD). Ms. Ţopescu was currently an adviser with Romania’s Health Ministry.
Cristina Ţopescu was daughter of a well-known sport comentator and TV anchor Cristian Ţopescu who died in May 2018.
She is survived by two half brothers, Cristian Jr. and Sebastian.

Alexandru Danga, RADOR