Romania's President Nicusor Dan on Monday paid homage to Cardinal Lucian Muresan, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church at the funeral ceremony officiated at the Sfanta Treime Major Archepiscopal Cathedral in Blaj, emphasising the historical role of the Greek-Catholic community and the importance of the example left by the high ranking hierarch.

'We must use any special moment and moments of homage like this, to tell ourselves and others that the world begins with us and that in what we are today is much of what others have experienced before us. And saying that, I say that Transylvania would not be today what it is without the Greek-Catholic community and Church, Romania would not be today what it is without the Greek-Catholic community and Church and we would not be today what we are without the Greek-Catholic community and Church,' said Dan.

On behalf of the Romanian state, he presented 'a tribute to this community and this church for what it was and a commitment to collaboration for what will be'.

Dan recalled the dramatic moments that the Greek-Catholic Church went through after 1948 and mentioned the role of Cardinal Muresan as an artisan of reconciliation.

'Romania needs reconciliation on many levels, and Cardinal Muresan, from whom we parted today in body, was an example of how reconciliation can happen. (...) And I had a man who managed, having this painful experience, to tactfully bring things back to normality. And I believe that Romania needs many such people in the moments we are living now.'

Dan also underlined the need for moral models for young people, in an era marked by the 'relativisation of values.'

'Cardinal Muresan was a model for values that are the word, faith, humanity, values for which he did not err even at the cost of suffering and at the risk of the very price of his entire life.'

Hundreds of priests and believers attended the funeral of Cardinal Lucian Muresan, the leader of the Greek Catholic Church in Romania, who died on Thursday at the age of 94

The liturgical celebrations occasioned by the burial of the Cardinal began with a procession of Greek-Catholic priests and students, which took place from the Curia of the Major Archdiocese to the Cathedral.

The Blaj Local Council on Friday passed a decision declaring Monday, September 29, a day of local mourning in the municipality of Blaj, as a sign of respect and homage to the cardinal. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Sebastian Olaru; EN writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)