associate the People's Salvation Cathedral and the Palace of the Parliament, the two colossuses of Romania's capital that share the same courtyard. As the largest Orthodox church in the world, next to the world's heaviest and second largest administrative building in the world, French newspaper Le Figaro, named it "a pharaonic project", "worthy of the megalomania of Nicolae Ceaușescu". A Romanian newspaper said that the People's Salvation Cathedral will be the most expensive building built in the country after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Another Romanian newspaper said that the politicians of the Romanian government depend on support from the Romanian Patriarchate in the election campaign, and estimates that when the cathedral will be fully completed, the value of the cathedral in the real estate market will be over €1 billion. A Romanian journalist called the cathedral a "God mall". The Romanian Orthodox Church's answer to such criticism was that the new cathedral would not imitate the gigantic buildings of the communist era, but would "correct them, through a decent and harmonious volumetry". The presence of the cathedral in the area with the Parliament of Romania, the Ministry of National Defense and the Romanian Academy, is seen as a dialogue and necessity for the benefit of the national homeland. Historical dates Consecration On 23 November 2018, the Ecumenical Patriarch arrived in Romania to lead the consecration of the People's Salvation Cathedral which was planned on Sunday 25 November; the Ecumenical Patriarch was officially welcomed by Patriarch Daniel of Romania. In his welcoming speech, Patriarch Daniel talked about the "spiritual connection between the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Mother-Church, and the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daughter-Church" On 24 November, at the Patriarchal Residence in Bucharest, during the meeting of the synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel of Romania made a speech to the Ecumenical Patriarch, thanking him for the cooperation between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. During the same meeting, the Ecumenical Patriarch made a speech to the Romanian Orthodox synod, stating that he was "sure the Romanian Orthodox Church will be involved in preserving the church unity and justice." On Sunday 25 November, the Ecumenical Patriarch with Patriarch Daniel of Romania and Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patras consecrated together the People's Salvation Cathedral with myrrh and holy water. At the big event, the consecration was held in the presence of 60 bishops by Romania and other Orthodox countries, together with