BUCHAREST: Tens of thousands of worshippers attended the inauguration on Sunday of a massive new Orthodox cathedral in Bucharest, amid criticism that public funding for the project could be better used to pay for hospitals and schools in one of the EU’s poorest members.

Construction of the Romanian People’s Salvation Cathedral in Bucharest began in 2010 and is only scheduled to be completed in 2024.

But the consecration mass on Sunday — celebrated by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Romanian Patriarch Daniel — was attended by worshippers from all over the country, with local reports describing huge crowds congregating in front of the building site to follow the ceremony on screens outside.

“It’s a very special event. And I definitely wanted to be here because the cathedral symobilises the centenary of Romania,” founded on Dec 1, 2018, Ion Duta, a pensioner from Bucharest, said.

“The costs are certainly high, but at least the Church has shown that it can build such a project. Our elected politicians are incapable of constructing motorways,” said another bystander, who only gave her first name as Georgiana.

Covering an area of 14,000 square metres (150,000 square feet), the cathedral will be Romania’s second tallest building with its main bell tower measuring 120 metres (390 feet) in height.

Situated in the centre of the capital city behind the pharaonic Palace of Parliament of former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, it will be able to hold as many as 5,000 worshippers.

Originally, the cost was estimated at around 80 million euros ($91 million). But it has already spiralled to 110 million euros and tens of millions more are expected to be spent before it is completed.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2018