The new pastor, Gabriel Budau, belongs to the Franciscan Order of Minorites. He established a branch of the order in the municipality.
The Franciscan greeting “Pax et Bonum” – peace and good – will now be heard more often by churchgoers in Haar. Because their new pastor, Gabriel Budau, belongs to the Franciscan Order of Minorites and was sent out to lead the parish association in Haar as parish administrator and at the same time to set up a new branch of the order in Haar. On Sunday, Auxiliary Bishop Rupert Graf zu Stolberg celebrated a mass for the inauguration and founding of the monastery of the Romanian Franciscan Friars Minor.
Budau was supported by his brothers Father Hortolomei Mihai Ciprian (33) and Father Dan-Ciprian Vătămănelu (34), who simply wanted to be called Father Mihai and Father Dan. “Pater Gabriel” is also sufficient in Budau. He takes his time in conversation and chooses his words consciously. German has become a second mother tongue for him, with a fine accent, but Cologne and Bavarian expressions also come easily to his lips.
Buda was born in Bacău in north-eastern Romania in 1981 and went to the Franciscan seminary in Románvásár at the age of 14, where he completed his religious formation, including studies in philosophy and theology. In 2006 he was ordained a priest and sent to Cologne by his Romanian provincial, i.e. the head of the local religious branch, where he held his first chaplaincy. Budau went from Cologne to Chiemsee as a pastor in 2011 and has headed the Chieming Parish Association since 2016. As a pastor, he experienced the “treasures of the Cologne and above all the Bavarian way of life and culture in society and in the church,” says Budau.
He often uses the terms “community” and “togetherness”. Both should shape his work in Haar, for which he prepared during a pilgrimage along the Franciscan Way in Italy. He and his brother, parish vicar Father Mihai, first want to see what has happened so far and how they can contribute their own accents: “We are here, we want to get to know each other and are open to new things,” says Budau and promises a diverse range of church activities for the community .