Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic
Encyclopedia
The Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic is an Eastern Catholic Church which is in full union with the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

. It is ranked as a Major Archiepiscopal Church
Major Archbishop
right|200 px|thumb|Archbishop [[Sviatoslav Shevchuk]], Major Archbishop of Kyiv-HalychIn the Eastern Catholic Churches, major archbishop is a title for an hierarch to whose archiepiscopal see is granted the same jurisdiction in his autonomous particular Church that an Eastern patriarch has in...

 and uses the Byzantine liturgical rite in the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

.

Since 1994, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church has been led by the Most Reverend Lucian Mureşan
Lucian Mureşan
Lucian Mureşan is the Major Archbishop of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia and thus head of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic....

, Archbishop of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia, who on December 16, 2005 became its first Major Archbishop
Major Archbishop
right|200 px|thumb|Archbishop [[Sviatoslav Shevchuk]], Major Archbishop of Kyiv-HalychIn the Eastern Catholic Churches, major archbishop is a title for an hierarch to whose archiepiscopal see is granted the same jurisdiction in his autonomous particular Church that an Eastern patriarch has in...

 when it was raised to the rank of a Major Archiepiscopal Church by Benedict XVI.

The Church has four other dioceses in Romania: (Oradea Mare, Eparchy of Cluj-Gherla, Eparchy of Lugoj
Eparchy of Lugoj
The Eparchy of Lugoj is a diocese of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic....

 and Eparchy of Maramureş
Greek Catholic Diocese of Maramureş
The Greek Catholic Eparchy of Maramures was founded as a consequence of the Concordate between the Holy See and The Romanian State concluded on May 10th 1927 and ratified on June 10th 1929....

), and one, directly subject to the Holy See, in the United States of America, Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St George's in Canton
Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St George's in Canton
The Eparchy of St George's in Canton is a Romanian Catholic eparchy based in Canton, Ohio, USA. The current eparch is John Michael Botean. The eparchy's cathedral church is St George's Cathedral, Canton, Ohio. The boundaries of the eparchy stretch across the continental United States...

.

According to the information, valid for the end of 2005, given in the 2007 Annuario Pontificio
Annuario Pontificio
The Annuario Pontificio is the annual directory of the Holy See. It lists all the popes to date and all officials of the Holy See's departments...

, it then had 763,000 followers, 8 bishops, 1239 parishes, some 747 diocesan priests and 274 seminarians of its own rite. However, according to the 2002 Romanian state census, the number of followers in Romania was as low as 191,556. The dispute over the figure is included in the United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

 report on religious freedom in Romania.

Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 also has another five dioceses for Latin Rite Catholics
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, who are more numerous.

History

Following the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

 conquest of Transylvania in 1687, Metropolitan Atanasie Anghel
Atanasie Anghel
Atanasie Anghel Popa, was a Romanian Greek-Catholic bishop of Alba Iulia between 1698 and 1713. He was the successor to Teophilus Seremi in the seat of Mitropoliei Bălgradului...

 entered into full communion with the See of Rome
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

 by the Act of Union of 1698 which was formalized by a synod of bishops on September 4, 1700.

By the Union, Atanasie and the other bishops and their diocese accepted papal supremacy while keeping their own Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 Byzantine liturgical rite
Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches , and by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church...

. This was a result of Diploma issued by the Emperor Leopold I
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
| style="float:right;" | Leopold I was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. A member of the Habsburg family, he was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria...

, which decreed Transylvania's Romanian Orthodox Church to be one with the Roman Catholic Church. Transylvanians were therefore encouraged to become Catholics and adhere to the newly created Greek-Catholic Church by retaining their Orthodox ritual, but accepting the four doctrinal points established by the Council of Florence
Council of Florence
The Council of Florence was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It began in 1431 in Basel, Switzerland, and became known as the Council of Ferrara after its transfer to Ferrara was decreed by Pope Eugene IV, to convene in 1438...

 between 1431 and 1445: the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

 as the supreme head of the church; the existence of Purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...

; the Filioque clause
Filioque clause
Filioque , Latin for "and the Son", is a phrase found in the form of Nicene Creed in use in the Latin Church. It is not present in the Greek text of the Nicene Creed as originally formulated at the First Council of Constantinople, which says only that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father":The...

; and the use of unleavened bread in Holy Communion
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

.

Metropolitan Atanasie Anghel and his Holy Synod took this course to obtain for the Romanians of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

 (then a Principauté vasal to the Hapsburg Empire) the same rights as those of the other Transylvanian nations, which were part of the Unio Trium Nationum
Unio Trium Nationum
Unio Trium Nationum Unio Trium Nationum Unio Trium Nationum (Latin for "Union of the Three Nations" was a pact of mutual aid formed in 1438 by three Estates of Transylvania: the (largely Hungarian) nobility, the Saxon (i.e. German) burghers, and the free Szeklers...

 (the Hungarian
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 nobility, the Transylvanian Saxons
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...

 and the Székely
Székely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...

). The event coincided with the arrival of the Jesuits
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

, who attempted to align Transylvania more closely with Western Europe. However, not all Romanians agreed with this conversion, leading to the movement of the Romanian Orthodox population that advocated for freedom of worship for all the Transylvanian population, most notably being the movements led by Visarion Sarai, Nicolae Oprea Miclăuş and Sofronie of Cioara
Sofronie of Cioara
Sofronie of Cioara is a Romanian Orthodox saint. He was an Eastern Orthodox monk who advocated for the freedom of worship of the Romanian population in Transylvania.-Early life:...

, under the dominant Serbian Church influence.

The Bishop's Residence was moved from Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 66,747, located on the Mureş River. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania...

 to Făgăraş
Fagaras
Făgăraș is a city in central Romania, located in Braşov County . Another source of the name is alleged to derive from the Hungarian language word for "partridge" . A more plausible explanation is that the name is given by Fogaras river coming from the Pecheneg "Fagar šu", which means ash water...

 in 1721, and then in 1737 to Blaj
Blaj
Blaj is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. It has a population of 20,758 inhabitants.The landmark of the city is the fact that it was the principal religious and cultural center of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church in Transylvania....

, which became a centre of learning and national awakening for all Romania.

In 1761, the Bishop of Făgăraş and Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, Petru Pavel Aron
Petru Pavel Aron
Petru Pavel Aron was Bishop of Făgăraş and Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church from 1752 to his death in 1764. He also translated the Biblia Vulgata into Romanian .-Life:...

 (1709–1764) translated the Biblia Vulgata into Romanian. Unlike the Romanian Orthodox who until 1863 officially used Church Slavonic in their Byzantine liturgy, the Romanian Church United with Rome used the Romanian vernacular since its beginnings. When, in the 19th century, Hungary followed a Magyarization
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...

 policy, the Greek-Catholic Church played a prominent part in resisting ethnic assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

, with the Transylvanian School
Transylvanian School
The Transylvanian School was a cultural movement which was founded after part of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Habsburg-ruled Transylvania accepted the leadership of the Pope and became the Greek-Catholic Church . The links with Rome brought to the Romanian Tranylvanians the ideas of the Age of...

 (Şcoala Ardeleană) and the Transylvanian Memorandum
Transylvanian Memorandum
The Transylvanian Memorandum was a petition sent in 1892 by the leaders of the Romanians of Transylvania to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor-King Franz Joseph, asking for equal ethnic rights with the Hungarians, and demanding an end to persecutions and Magyarization attempts.-Status:After the Ausgleich...

. Leading Romanian personalities as Simion Bărnuţiu
Simion Barnutiu
Simion Bărnuţiu was a Transylvanian-born Romanian historian, academic, philosopher, jurist, and liberal politician. A leader of the 1848 revolutionary movement of Transylvanian Romanians, he represented its Eastern Rite Catholic wing...

 or Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...

 were initially civil servants of Greek-Catholic Church.

Other Eparchies were set up at Oradea (1777), at Gherla and Lugoj (1853); Blaj, under the title of Alba Iulia and Făgăraş, became their Metropolitan (in the sense of archiepiscopal) See. On December 16, 2005, the Church was raised to the dignity of a Major Archiepiscopal Church
Major Archbishop
right|200 px|thumb|Archbishop [[Sviatoslav Shevchuk]], Major Archbishop of Kyiv-HalychIn the Eastern Catholic Churches, major archbishop is a title for an hierarch to whose archiepiscopal see is granted the same jurisdiction in his autonomous particular Church that an Eastern patriarch has in...

.

Persecution under Communism

In 1948, the Communist regime
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

 that had taken power, at Stalin's request, deposed all 12 bishops of the Greek-Catholic Church and, on October 21, 1948, the 250th anniversary of the Romanian Greek Catholic Union with the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, arranged the "spontaneous" passage of all its members (decree 358/1948), who were then some 1,500,000 in numbers, to the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...

, to which some of its property, including four cathedrals, were given, while the rest was confiscated by the State.

The Catholic bishops, and many Greek-Catholic priests, were arrested for "antidemocratic activity", mainly for refusal to give up ties with the "reactionary" Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

. In the meantime, the Orthodox Church was "purged" of priests unfriendly to the Communist regime and, for the next 40 years, it had good relations with the Communist authorities.
Iuliu Hossu
Iuliu Hossu
Iuliu Hossu was a Romanian Greek-Catholic bishop of the Cluj-Gherla Diocese and later cardinal and victim of the Communist regime...

, Bishop of Cluj
Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla
The Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla is a diocese of the Byzantine Rite of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia.-Ordinaries:*Johann Alexi †...

, refused the proposal of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch, Iustinian Marina, to become the Orthodox Archbishop of Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...

 and metropolitan of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

, and thereby even the official successor to the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch himself. He remained under house arrest, and each year sent a Memorandum to the President of the Republic, asking that the country's laws and Romania's international agreements be observed with regard to the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church. In 1969, Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

 asked him to accept appointment to the cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

ate. As he preferred to stay with his people, the Pope ordained him Cardinal only "in pectore", i.e. without publishing the fact, which he revealed only on March 5, 1973, three years after Bishop Hossu's death.

Another remarkable Romanian ecclesiastic of the time was Alexandru Todea
Alexandru Todea
Alexandru Todea was a Romanian Greek-Catholic bishop of the Alba Iulia Diocese and later cardinal. He was also a victim of the communist regime....

 (1912–2002). Secretly (in pectore) ordained as a titular bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 on 19 November 1950, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the following year. He was given amnesty in 1964 and on March 14, 1990, after the fall of the Communist regime, was appointed Archbishop of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia, becoming a Cardinal in the following year.

After more than 40 years of surviving only in secrecy, the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic was able to appear again in public only after the 1989 Romanian Revolution. Normative act 9/31, passed on 31 December 1989, repealed Decree 358/1948 as repugnant and bringing grave prejudice upon the Romanian State.

With delay, some of the Church's property, in particular the cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

s of Cluj, Blaj, Lugoj and Oradea, which the Communist Government had transferred to the Orthodox Church, were restored to it. Nevertheless, much property remains in Romanian Orthodox or government hands, and the reduction in the number of Romanian Greek Catholic faithful since 1948 has been evident. After 40 years of Communist rule and forced integration into the regime-approved Orthodox Church, numerous Greek Catholic-born Romanians have remained inside the Romanian Orthodox Church or secularized
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...

. The Romanian Church United with Rome is still recovering from the Communist era and the forced merger.

Conflict with the Latin Rite

Unlike other sources of pressure, Latin Rite pressure against this Church came from within Catholicism, one segment of the same Universal Church attempting to modify, suppress or even outright ban another part.

Historically, Eastern Catholic Churches in general came under pressure to modify their practices, to Romanize
Liturgical Latinisation
Liturgical Latinisation, also known as Latinisation, is the process by which liturgical and other aspects of the Churches of Eastern Christianity were altered to resemble more closely the practices of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church...

. In the case of the Byzantine-Rite Romanian Catholic Church, the pressure grew with the creation, 17 years after Romania's Greek-Catholics recreated a full communion with Rome, of the "Commission, created in 1717 and operational in the heart of the Congregation for the Propagation of Faith ('Propaganda Fide')
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples
The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome is the congregation of the Roman Curia responsible for missionary work and related activities...

 until 1862, for the correction of the liturgical book
Liturgical book
A liturgical book is a book published by the authority of a church, that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.-Roman Catholic:...

s of the Church of the East.

These interventions felt the effects of the mentality and convictions of the times, according to which a certain subordination of the non-Latin liturgies was perceived toward the Latin rite liturgy which was considered 'ritus praestantior.' This attitude may have led to interventions in the Eastern liturgical texts which today, in light of theological studies and progress, have need of revision, in the sense of a return to ancestral traditions."

Given that the Commission came into being so close to the date of reunification, Romanian Byzantine Catholicism is naturally the most profoundly affected of all the eastern churches as it never had a chance to gain its legs and get a sense of self within Catholicism prior to the creation of this innovating Commission. Another reason Romanizing pressure was more intense was the fact that the Romanian language itself is derived from Latin, not Old Church Slavonic or Greek, and Romanization was therefore more attractive to Romanian Byzantine Catholics than it was to, say, Ukrainian Catholics.

Problems in diaspora territories

Starting in the late 19th century, two issues, trsuteeship (lay ownership of parish property) and the ministry of married Greek-Catholic clergy in the United States and Canada became points of conflict between Latin-rite church authorities and the Greek-Catholic clergy and faithful. At the time, ecclesiastical structures for the Eastern Churches had not been erected in those countries, and Greek-Catholic parishes and their priests' ministry were under the jurisdiction of local Latin-rite diocesan bishops.

At the request of these bishops, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith decreed that Byzantine-rite Churches would have to follow the custom of the predominant Latin Church: married priests would not be allowed to serve in such diaspora mission settings. This restriction on the Eastern churches' exercise of their established customs remained a contentious issue for years, and even provoked schism, as in the 1889 case of Archbishop John Ireland
John Ireland (archbishop)
John Ireland was the third bishop and first archbishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota . He became both a religious as well as civic leader in Saint Paul during the turn of the century...

 and Ruthenian priest Alexis Toth. Most Romanian emigration came after this period, so it was less an issue but still a problem. Today, most priests of the Romanian Greek Catholic diocese of the United State are married and there is no bar to ordination of married men.

Property issues since the fall of Communism

Since the fall of Communism, Church leaders have claimed that the Romanian Greek-Catholic Community is faced with a cultural and religious wipe-out: the Greek-Catholic churches are allegedly destroyed by the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...

 representatives, whose actions are supported and accepted by the Romanian authorities.

Hierarchy

  • Romanian Catholic Archeparchy of Fagaras and Alba Iulia
    • Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Cluj-Gherla
      Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla
      The Greek Catholic Diocese of Cluj-Gherla is a diocese of the Byzantine Rite of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia.-Ordinaries:*Johann Alexi †...

    • Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Oradea Mare
      Greek Catholic Diocese of Oradea Mare
      The Greek Catholic diocese of Oradea Mare is the Eparchy of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church for the area of Oradea.It was founded in 1777, followers of the Greek Rite having been up to that time under the jurisdiction of the Latin bishop...

    • Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Lugos
    • Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Maramureş
    • Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St George's in Canton
      Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St George's in Canton
      The Eparchy of St George's in Canton is a Romanian Catholic eparchy based in Canton, Ohio, USA. The current eparch is John Michael Botean. The eparchy's cathedral church is St George's Cathedral, Canton, Ohio. The boundaries of the eparchy stretch across the continental United States...


External links

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