BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Thousands of pilgrims turned out Sunday in Romania’s capital for the consecration of religious paintings inside the world’s largest Christian Orthodox church that was being opened after 15 years of construction.
Worshippers and officials arrived in droves at the People’s Salvation Cathedral, known as the National Cathedral, which at its highest point stands more than 125 meters (410 feet) and has an inner capacity for 5,000 worshippers in the deeply Orthodox country. The cathedral's opulent interior is covered with frescoes and mosaics depicting saints and icons.
Proposals for a national cathedral in the country of about 19 million people had been put forward for more than a century, but its fruition was hampered by two world wars and the decades of communist rule, which sought to suppress religion. The Romanian Orthodox Church has called the cathedral “a symbol of national identity.”
Romania is one of the most pious countries in the European Union, with around 85% of the population identifying as religious.
Situated behind the hulking Palace of the People built by the late communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu, construction for the cathedral finally began in 2010, and its altar was consecrated in 2018. It has so far cost a reported 270 million euros ($313 million), with a majority drawn from public funds, and some works are yet to be completed.
Traffic was restricted for Sunday’s service, which was attended by President Nicusor Dan and Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan. Many worshippers watched via TV screens set up outside the cathedral.
The cathedral’s mosaics and iconography cover an area of 17,800 square meters (191,000 square feet), according the cathedral’s website.
Daniel Codrescu, who has spent seven years working on the frescoes and mosaics, told The Associated Press that much of the iconography has been inspired by medieval Romanian paintings and others from the Byzantine world.
“It was a complex collaboration with the church, with art historians, with artists, also our friends of contemporary art,” he said. “I hope (the church) is going to have a very important impact on society because … it’s a public space.”
With one of the largest budget deficits in the EU, not everyone in Romania was happy about the cost of the project. Critics bemoan that the massive church has drawn on public funds, which could have been spent on schools or hospitals.
Claudiu Tufis, an associate professor of political science at the University of Bucharest, said the project was a “waste of public money” but said it could offer a “boost to national pride and identity” for some Romanians.
“The fact that they have forced, year after year, politicians to pay for it, in some cases taking money from communities that really needed that money, indicates it was a show of force, not one of humility and love of God,” he said. “Economically, it might be OK in the long term as it will be a tourist attraction.”
Rares Ghiorghies, 37, supports the church but said the money would be better spent on health and education as “a matter of good governance."
“The big problem in society is that most of those who criticize do not follow the activities of the church,” he said.
McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.
FILE - Construction workers install the main cross of the National Cathedral, in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
FILE - A construction worker gives a thumbs up in the final stages of installation for the main cross of the National Cathedral, in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Thom Tillis isn't holding back during his final year in Washington.
“I'm sick of stupid,” the two-term Republican from North Carolina said from the Senate floor recently as he derided President Donald Trump 's advisers for stoking a potential U.S. military takeover in Greenland.
It was just one of several moments during the opening weeks of 2026 when Tillis, who isn't seeking reelection, seemed unconstrained by the anxieties that weigh down many of his GOP colleagues who are loath to cross the White House for fear of triggering a political backlash.
He's one of just two Republicans, along with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who participated in a congressional delegation to Denmark this week while Trump threatens to seize Greenland. He was quick to criticize the Justice Department's investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. As Trump and his allies try to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, Tillis backed the eventual display of a plaque honoring police who defended the Capitol that day.
He has shown particular frustration with Trump's top aides, notably deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller.
“I don't want some staffer telling me what my position is on something,” he said after Miller gave a forceful interview on CNN saying Greenland “should be part of the United States.”
“He made comments out of his depth,” Tillis added.
The moves reflect the sense of freedom lawmakers often feel when they know they won't have to face voters again. They've helped attract swarms of reporters who follow Tillis through the halls of Congress as he offers candid thoughts on news of the day. And they've won support from the handful of other Republicans who sometimes cross Trump, including Murkowski, who called out “good speech!” as she passed him in the Capitol following his floor remarks on Greenland.
For the 65-year-old Tillis, who has won elections in one of the most politically competitive states, the approach is notable for the way in which he's pushing back against the White House. He's hardly staking out a position as a never-Trumper and repeatedly — often effusively — expresses support for the president.
Rather, he's targeting much of his criticism at senior White House aides, sometimes raising questions about whether Trump is receiving the best advice at a consequential moment in his presidency as the GOP enters a challenging election year.
“I really want this president to be very, very successful,” Tillis said this week. “And a part of his legacy is going to be based on picking and choosing the right advice from people in his administration.”
Heading into the midterms, Tillis said, “I want to create a better environment for Republicans to win.”
Tillis, who had a challenging childhood involving multiple moves, worked at an accounting and consulting firm before entering politics. He was the speaker of North Carolina's House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. He said this week that he approaches his concerns from a business perspective.
“Sometimes there's just things that people need to say, ‘not a good idea, not in our best interest, hard to implement,” he said. “I probably should have started by saying that’s what I did in the private sector for about 25 years.”
Beyond Miller, Tillis has raised questions about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's immediate response to the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Hours after the shooting, while an FBI investigation was still unfolding, Noem defended the officer and said Good “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill the next day, Tillis said he was “surprised by the level of certainty in her comments” and suggested such rhetoric influenced Trump, who was also quick to defend law enforcement.
“She's advising the president so the president's comments had to have come I assume through the advice of the secretary,” he said.
Tillis' balancing act was on particularly vivid display earlier this month on the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, when he helped broker the deal to publicly show the plaque honoring officers that was held up by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Speaking from the Senate floor, he called the attack “one of the worst days in my 11 years in the U.S. Senate.”
He lauded the staff and U.S. Capitol police who defended lawmakers and helped ensure that Congress ultimately certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. But he also struck fiercely partisan tones, blaming Democrats for embracing a movement to defund the police and criticizing media coverage of protests that turned violent during the summer of 2020.
Tillis framed Jan. 6 as a “wonderful stress test for democracy” before arguing that the Biden administration went “overboard” by prosecuting “people who were dumb enough to walk into the building but they weren't the leaders.” He then pivoted to criticism of Trump's sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 defendants, including those who attacked police.
But even then, he didn't directly blame Trump, again focusing on his advisers.
“The president, on the advice of somebody in the White House — and I hope I find out the name of that person — also pardoned criminals who injured police officers and destroyed this building,” Tillis said. “If you had that happen to your office or your business, would you think well they were just a little hotheaded and let them go and not prosecute them? Or would you hold them accountable for destroying the citadel of democracy?”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Tillis' assessment of Trump's aides. The senator rejects any suggestion that he's stepped up his criticism because of his impeding retirement, calling the notion “hysterical.”
His relationship with Trump hit a low point last summer when he opposed the president's sweeping tax and spending cuts package. Trump accused Tillis of seeking publicity and said on social media that the senator was a “talker and complainer, NOT A DOER.” Tillis announced his retirement soon after voting against the measure, one of only two Senate Republicans to do so.
Trump has been more sanguine in response to Tillis' more recent comments. Asked this week about the senator's criticism of the Fed probe, Trump said, “That's why Thom's not going to be a senator any longer, I guess.”
“Look, I like Thom Tillis,” Trump said. “But he's not going to be a senator any longer because of views like that.”
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE -Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oct. 13, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP, File)
FILE - Wearing a beaded bolo around a pin that says "United States Senate," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., listens to thanks from members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, after the passage of a bill granting the tribe with federal recognition, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
