Romanian Greek-Catholic Uniate Church

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The Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic (in Romanian: Biserica Română Unită cu Roma, Greco-Catolică) is a Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite.

Since 1994, the Most Reverend Lucian Mureşan, Archbishop of Alba-Iulia and Făgăraş, is Metropolitan of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic. The Church has four other dioceses in Romania (Oradea, Cluj-Gherla, Lugoj and Maramureş), [1] and one, directly subject to the Holy See, in the United States of America (Saint George's in Canton).[2]

In 2002, there were 191,000 Romanian Greek Catholics.

The Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic (its official name) is an Eastern Rite or Greek-Catholic Church that uses the Byzantine liturgical rite in the Romanian language. Romania also has another five dioceses for Latin Rite Catholics, who are more numerous.

History

In Transylvania in 1698, part of the Romanian Orthodox Church accepted the ecclesiastical authority of the Pope, while retaining its Byzantine rite. This was done to obtain for the Romanians of Transylvania (then part of the Habsburg Empire) the same rights as the other nationalities of the Unio Trium Nationum. The event coincided with the arrival of the Jesuits, who attempted to align Transylvania more closely with Western Europe.

A Magyarization policy was followed by Hungary in the 19th century Transylvania and the Greek-Catholic Church played a prominent part in resisting ethnic assimilation, in the Transylvanian School (Şcoala Ardeleană) and the Transylvanian Memorandum.

In 1948, the Communist government officially suppressed the Greek-Catholic Church, confiscated its churches and gave them to the Orthodox Church. The Catholic bishops were arrested for "undemocratic activity", mainly due to their refusal of giving up ties with the Vaticans as the regime was suspicious of links to the West, a fate shared by many Greek-Catholic priests. In the meantime, the Orthodox Church was "purged" by priests unfriendly to the regime and for the next 40 years, it had good relations with the communist authorities.

The Orthodox Church "reaccepted" the Romanian Greek Catholics in 1950. The Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic survived only in secrecy and illegally; and only after the 1989 Romanian Revolution was it able to appear again in public and attempt to reclaim its churches and other property, a process that continues through today. This process has both a material aspect (the properties are needed to support the flock) and spiritual (it was and is singularly unhealthy for the Romanian Orthodox Church to be the largest private receiver of stolen goods in the country).

References

External links


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