PressOne: Priest director Ciprian Mega’s connections with Russia. A Russian oligarch invited him to build a Russian church

The priest-director Ciprian Mega recently took his film to the International Festival in Moscow, provoking wide debates about how a young priest from Oradea came to be photographed with Russian officials at a time when relations between Russia and the West are extremely strained . PressOne has researched the history of this priest and presents in an extensive investigation the ties between Mega and Russia.

An important episode in the career of priest Ciprian Mega takes place in 2009. Freshly graduated from the Faculty of Theology “Andrei Șaguna” in Sibiu, he wrote a book, which he states, in an interview given in 2022 for TVR, that angered the management Romanian Orthodox Church, because he was talking about the betrayals that happened within the Church during the years of communism.

Thus, the priest justifies the decision to go to Cyprus where he quickly learned to serve in Greek and was employed at one of the most important parishes, Saint Nicholas.

Mega’s departure to Cyprus speaks volumes for his future connections with the Russian world. The Orthodox Church of Cyprus is an autocephalous church of the Orthodox Christian community, meaning it has its own leadership and its own archbishop. But Cyprus, like his church, are closely linked to the Russian space. There are a large number of Russians who frequent, either as tourists or as businessmen, Cyprus, and the influence of the Moscow patriarch in Cyprus has been frequently written about, PressOne recalls.

In the said interview, Mega also told that one of the metropolitans of Cyprus had great confidence in him and invited him to accompany him to a discussion with a Russian oligarch and an architect, who wanted to build a Russian Orthodox church in the capital. This plan was not to be carried out as the Russian oligarch died.

However, the meeting made Mega come up with the idea and propose to the metropolitan that he build a Romanian Orthodox church. Mega states that this achievement brought him back into the good graces of the BOR, which invited him to return to serve in Romania, where he received a small wooden church from the courtyard of the Oradea Children’s Hospital.

As in Cypriu, the priest quickly obtained funding, in neither case being clear from which sources, and demolished the old place of worship and built a church of solid brick walls, increasing the number of parishioners.

The full investigation can be read in PressOne

Who is the priest-director Mega

Ciprian Mega, who was ordained a priest in 2009 and made his directorial debut in 2015 with the short film Job’s Wedding, traveled to Moscow last week. The director presented his latest film, 21 Rubies, at the Moscow International Film Festival.

Reactions from the clerical world were swift. Theologian Paul Palencsar said that priest Mega is walking at the Moscow International Film Festival on a red carpet “soaked in blood”, a statement recorded by HotNews.ro. Priest Mega got angry with the newsroom and attacked HotNews when he took the stage in Moscow.

In addition, he called Bănescu “a crypto-revolutionary”.

Banescu previously stated that he doubted that priest Mega could have received the blessing of his superior to go to Moscow to promote his film, as stipulated by the regulations of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

In a dialogue with HotNews.ro, Ciprian Mega confirmed that he does not have the blessing, but said that his opinion about Bishop Sofronie of Oradea, where he has his parish, is “known”.

Priest Mega attacked the state of affairs in the BOR, in harsh terms. He accused about the “moral disaster” in the Diocese of Oradea, the “promiscuity of hell” in Husi and the “human degradation” in general in BOR.