{"id":314051,"date":"2021-04-06T17:14:24","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T14:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=314051"},"modified":"2021-04-06T17:14:24","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T14:14:24","slug":"romanian-priest-offers-bicycles-to-children-i-come-from-a-family-of-priests-and-i-saw-my-family-giving-all-the-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/romanian-priest-offers-bicycles-to-children-i-come-from-a-family-of-priests-and-i-saw-my-family-giving-all-the-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Romanian priest offers bicycles to children: \u201cI come from a family of priests, and I saw my family giving all the time\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In two years, 25 children from R\u00e2pa de Jos and surroundings received a bicycle as a gift by Fr Dacian Oprea\u2019s help. He thinks he\u2019s not doing anything special. \u201cThat is the purpose of a priest and a man, to help.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

He saw the example of generosity in his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very compassionate, and I would give anything, and in this, I give so many things. It also depends on what family you come from. I come from a family of priests, and I saw my family giving all the time; as a child, I was taught to be good, to help,\u201d Fr. Dacian Oprea noted.<\/p>\n

For many rural families, cycling is a luxury they can hardly afford.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an area where children are more modest; they work in agriculture, they wake up in the morning, go to school, do their homework between field works. (\u2026). Here, in R\u00e2pa, some children go to school by bike. There was a period when the school minibus was broken, and some went by bike,” Father Dacian told Agerpres.<\/p>\n

The idea for the project came to him when he saw several children playing with a single bicycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see on the street that a child had a bicycle and about 5-6 children were running after him. That\u2019s how I started it, seeing them eager to have bikes,” recalled the priest who confessed that he could not have continued the project if he had not had support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of friends, and with their help, I managed to do this through social networks. I always put pictures of what I do, and people call me and invite themselves to do good deeds. One man brings two more, another two bring four more, and that\u2019s how I succeeded.”<\/p>\n

\u2018Father, would you give me a bike too, because I don\u2019t have one?\u2019<\/h1>\n

He was most impressed by a little girl from a nearby town who asked for his help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became interested in a girl, and I found out that she didn’t have a mother; she only lived with her father. About two years ago, her house burned, and she was even more upset,\u201d said Father Dacian.<\/p>\n

The little girl appreciated the priest’s gift like no other.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe slept for two or three nights with the bike in the room by the bed. She loved it so much. Her father called me to tell me this,” the priest said, expressing his contentment.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old priest intends to continue the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project started two years ago, and I hope to carry it out as soon as possible. I tried in the village. I will try to develop it in the commune, in the county and even further because many children are destitute and are eager to have a bicycle,” the priest added.<\/p>\n

R\u00e2pa de Jos is a village in V\u0103tava commune, Mure\u0219 county, Transylvania, Romania.<\/p>\n

Photography courtesy of R\u00e2pa de Jos Parish\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter: @BasilicaNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In two years, 25 children from R\u00e2pa de Jos and surroundings received a bicycle as a gift by Fr Dacian Oprea\u2019s help. He thinks he\u2019s not doing anything special. \u201cThat is the purpose of a priest and a man, to help.\u201d He saw the example of generosity in his family. \u201cI am very compassionate, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":313900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[25457,25456,10386,19040,18893],"class_list":["post-314051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dioceses","tag-bicycle","tag-bikes","tag-orthodox-news","tag-romanian-priest","tag-youth-ministry"],"better_featured_image":{"id":313900,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1363,"height":956,"file":"2021\/04\/bicicleta.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"bicicleta-890x624.jpg","width":890,"height":624,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bicicleta-890x624.jpg"},"large":{"file":"bicicleta-1024x718.jpg","width":1024,"height":718,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bicicleta-1024x718.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"bicicleta-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bicicleta-360x360.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":314051,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/bicicleta.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314051\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=314051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314051\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313900\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=314051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=314051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=314051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}