Catholic Church in Romania

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The Saint Joseph Cathedral, Bucharest, serving the Archdiocese of Bucharest
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Romanian Catholics, like Catholics elsewhere, are members of the

Csángó), Romanians (38.2% or 283,092), Germans (1.7% or 12,495) and Slovaks (0.9% or 6,853).[2]

Most Romanian Latin Catholics inhabit the region of

Romani people.[4]

The

Ordinariate for Catholics of Armenian Rite in Romania. The Armenian Rite as used by its largely Transylvanian membership was significantly hybridized into the 20th century.[5][6]

Structure

Administrative map of the Latin Church in Romania
Roman Catholicism in Romania (2002 census)

The

Diocese of Iaşi, for Moldavia).[2]

The church presently runs a faculty of

religious institutes; it includes kindergartens, orphanages, social canteens, medical facilities.[2]

Year Catholics (Latin Church) Percentage
1930 1,234,151[9] 6.8%
1948 1,175,000[10] 7.4%
1992 1,161,942[10] 5.1%
2002 1,028,401 4.7%
2011 870,774 4.3%
2022 741,276 3.9%

History

Medieval period

Main article: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Alba Iulia
The Transylvanian Diocese of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) and bordering dioceses in the Kingdom of Hungary (13th century)
Ruins of the Catholic church in Baia (dating from the early 15th century)

The oldest traces of Catholic activities on present-day Romanian territory were recorded in

King Stephen I — according to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913, a more likely patron is Ladislaus I, who ruled almost a century after (the first bishop it lists is Simon, who held the see between 1103 and 1113).[12]

Other dioceses were created in

exempt).[12]

During the rule of

Diocese of Cumania was created on the Milcov, in areas later ruled by Moldavia and Wallachia. Its assets were granted by the Hungarian rulers, whose claimed suzerainty over the region,[15] and it extended over parts of Székely Land.[12]

The Diocese of Cumania disappeared for a while, as locals took over its property, but was revived in 1332–1334, when

Franciscan Vitus de Monteferro, the chaplain of King Charles Robert, as the new bishop.[15] Direct control over the congregation was made difficult by the intrusion of the Golden Horde, who had set up its base in the region later known as Budjak (present-day southern Ukraine).[15] Around 1318, the Dobrujan town of Vicina was part of the Catholic vicariate of "Northern Tartary".[14]

1411 fresco in the presently Unitarian church of Dârjiu (Székelyderzs)

During the 14th century, in the years following the establishment of Moldavia and Wallachia as separate states (the

Jagiellon Poland and Transylvania set up the first Catholic congregations over the Carpathians.[2]

In both countries, as a result of stately emancipation and lingering conflicts with the Hungarian Kingdom, the relatively strong Catholic presence receded with the establishment of more powerful Eastern Orthodox institutions (the

Alexandru cel Bun, the short-lived one of Baia (1405–1413).[2][19][20]

Over the following centuries, the citadel of

Curtea de Argeş (1381).[21] The Moldavian diocese of Siret survived through the early stage of war with the Ottoman Empire, but was ultimately disestablished during the early 15th century, when it moved to Bacău.[19] In 1497, that location was abandoned by the hierarchy, and was no longer active during the following century.[19] Until the mid-19th century, like all other religious minorities, Catholics did not enjoy full political and civil rights.[22]

The impact of Reformation

Main article: Edict of Torda
The "Catholic Tower" at the Biertan (Birthälm) fortified church

Following the

Calvinism.[3] The provostship of Szeben ceased to exist entirely.[12] Catholicism attempted to reestablish itself as George Martinuzzi, a Catholic cleric, took over rule of Transylvania, but again declined after Martinuzzi was assassinated in 1551.[12]

Religious disputes and battles prolonged themselves over the following centuries, as a large number of Latin Catholic communities founded specifically Protestant local churches — the

Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession — while others adhered to the Unitarian Church of Transylvania.[2][3][23] The Diocese of Alba Iulia was disestablished in 1556.[12]

An unprecedented stalemate was reached in 1568, under

Stefan Batory took the Transylvanian throne in succession to Zápolya (who had since become King of Hungary).[12]

During that age, Latin Catholics were recognized an autonomous structure, which allowed clerics and laity to organize teaching and administrate community schools.[12] A particular compromise was the Saxon citadel of Biertan (Birthälm), where the fortified church was taken over by the majority Lutheran community, and Catholic worship was still allowed to take place in the "Catholic Tower", located just south of the religious building.[24]

The

Gabriel Báthori), they continued their activities in the Moldavian region around Cotnari.[25]

17th century setbacks and recovery

Ghelinţa
(Gelence), completed in 1628

Coinciding with the Habsburg offensives, religious conflicts were resumed and, in 1601 Bishop Demeter Napragy was forced out of Alba Iulia, with the see being confiscated by Protestants (although bishops continued to be appointed, they resided abroad).[12] By 1690, Roman Catholics were a minority in Transylvania.[23]

In parallel, Hungary-proper was integrated into Habsburg domains (1622), which created a new base for Counter-Reformation, as well as a local seat for the

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth settled in that country, founding a college in Cotnari and establishing a branch in Iaşi.[25]

Around that time, the ethnic Romanian Transylvanian intellectual

Royal Hungary (1619).[25] The order was expelled a third time from Transylvania (1652), on orders from George II Rákóczi, and was twice driven out of Moldavia by the Great Turkish War (1672, 1683).[25]

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Catholic Church sought to obtain the adherence of non-Catholic Christians to the Eastern Catholic Churches. They were assisted in this effort by the Habsburg offensive into Eastern Europe, which brought about Emperor Leopold I's conquest of Transylvania in 1699.[2][23] An additional factor for the new Catholic successes was, arguably, the continuous fighting between the various Protestant denominations of Transylvania.[3]

In 1657, Armenians in Transylvania who belonged to the Armenian Apostolic Church and were led by Bishop Oxendius Vărzărescu, placed themselves under indirect Roman Catholic jurisdiction, as part of the Armenian Catholic Church.[27] Michael I Apafi, a Transylvanian prince, allowed the resettling of 600 Armenian families from Moldavia in 1672, elevating 55 of the families to nobility. The Armenians–which included a Catholic contingent–created trading towns, with Gherla (Armenopolis or Szamosújvár) the most prominent.[28][27] Some Transylvania Romanian Orthodox would join with Rome in 1698.[29]

18th century

Jesuit College

Under the rule of Emperor

Szeben was not revived, and its assets went instead to the main diocese.[12] It was also under Maria Theresia that Catholic teaching and school administration came under the supervision of the Commissio catholica (this remained the rule under the Austrian Empire and the early years of Austria-Hungary).[12]

In 1700, with Jesuit assistance, the

Prince Antioh Cantemir.[25] In 1773, the order was suppressed throughout Europe, before being again created by Pope Pius VII in 1814 (see Suppression of the Society of Jesus).[25] Pope Pius IX reorganized the local Greek-Catholic Church in 1853, and placed it under Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide jurisdiction[30] (between 1912 and 1919, the Greek-Catholic parishes were administered from Hajdúdorog).[31]

Romanian Greek Catholic autonomy was challenged by the Diocese of Ardeal's Latin bishop in 1721. The Latin bishop, invoking the

Fourth Lateran Council, asserted that the Romanian Greek Catholic clergy were subordinate to him. The Latin bishop also claimed that Romanian Greek Catholic bishop Ioan Giurgiu Patachi was in fact his "ritual vicar" for the Byzantine Rite community. Pope Innocent XIII intervened, asserting Patachi's ordinary authority over Romanian Greek Catholics but moving Patachi's see to Făgăraș.[32]

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Moldavia and Wallachia were awarded their own

Bărăţia).[34]

In addition to the local presence, the

Poles (a presence notable after the 1863 January Uprising forced many to take refuge in Romania), and French people (see History of Bucharest).[36]

19th century and early 20th centuries

The Bărăţia in Câmpulung, late 19th-century painting by Nicolae Grigorescu

In 1812, the Franciscan

ad hoc Divans. On November 11, 1857, on Costache Negri's proposal, Moldavia's Divan regulated an end to religious discrimination against non-Eastern Orthodox Christians, a measure which mostly benefited the resident Latin Catholics and Armenian Apostolic Christians.[22]

Following the Moldo-Wallachian union of 1859, and the 1881 creation of the Kingdom of Romania, the seat in Bucharest became an archdiocese (April 7, 1883) and the one in Iaşi a diocese, replacing the Franciscan-led diocese of Bacău (June 27, 1884).[2][26][30] This came as a consequence of repeated protests from locals, who called for Romanian clerics not to be under the strict control of foreign bishops.[34] Upgrading the local ecclesiastical hierarchy, the move also led to the disestablishment of the Cioplea bishopric.[33] The first Archbishop of Bucharest was Ignazio Paoli.[34]

The

Congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion.[34] Despite this increase in importance, Romania and the Holy See did not formally establish diplomatic relations for several decades.[30] The authorities also refused to allow the Church to create its own college.[34]

In parallel, autonomy for Latin Catholic school administration in Austro-Hungarian Transylvania was recovered in 1873, through the creation of a "Roman-Catholic Status".[12] Among the Romanian Greek Catholics, the blanket policy of granting annulments for marriages involving adultery was suppressed during the 19th century. This practice, typical to the Romanian Orthodox, was considered an "abuse" by the Catholic Church.[32]

World War I and Greater Romania

Religions in Austria-Hungary (1881)

During the final years of World War I and the stages leading up to Transylvania's union with Romania, Catholicism in Romania met with several diplomatic problems. Romania was defeated by the Central Powers and signed the Treaty of Bucharest, but its diplomats remained active in Allied countries, setting up the National Romanian Council in Paris. The latter, which also represented Romanian groups in the Austro-Hungarian-ruled Transylvania and Bukovina, appointed Monsignor Vladimir Ghika as its representative in Vatican City.[37]

During the interwar years, Romanian national identity was molded to emphasize the Romanian Orthodox Church at the exclusion of other religious groups including Latin and Greek Catholics and Protestants. Trăirism, an anti-Western Romanian political theory led by

uniatism conversion efforts in 18th-century Transylvania. Memories of the Austro-Hungarian Catholic monarchy and its limitations on Romanian Orthodoxy further fomented anti-Catholic sentiment in this period.[38]

When the

Foreign Minister Duiliu Zamfirescu, the outgoing Ghika was replaced with Dimitrie Pennescu, who was Romania's first ambassador to the Vatican.[31] The Apostolic Nunciature in Romania was set up as a result of this.[2][31] The first person to hold this office was Archbishop Francesco Marmaggi, who took charge in October 1920.[31] The mix of new Latin Catholic Hungarian and Swabians along with the Romanian Greek Catholic population created ethnic tension with the dominant Romanian Orthodox Christians.[39]

Subsequently, the Latin Catholic presence registered significant successes: new religious institutes, such as the

Sisters of St. Mary, began their activities on Romanian soil, and the lay Acţiunea Catolică, a Romanian version of the Catholic Action, was set up in 1927.[2] By the end of World War II, there were 25 religious institutes present in the country in 203 monasteries, maintaining 421 religious schools and coordinating various charity ventures.[2] Over the early 1920s, the Holy See and Romania engaged in several diplomatic disputes: in one case, the Catholic Church declared itself dissatisfied by the effects of a land reform carried out in 1920–1921 (as a result of talks, it was occasionally allowed to keep larger estates than the law permitted);[40] in parallel, Romanian authorities were dissatisfied with the activities of certain Latin Catholic prelates in Transylvania and Hungary, whom they suspected of actively supporting Hungarian irredentism (in one of his notes to the Vatican, Pennescu condemned the politically motivated letters addressed by Gyula Glattfelder, the Bishop of Timișoara, to his Hungarian-majority congregation).[41]

A Concordat was negotiated in 1927, being ratified by the Romanian side in 1929[2][42][43] and through the papal bull Solemni conventione on June 5, 1930.[44] On the basis of it, a 1932 agreement assigned the Latin Church all the Transylvanian assets previously administered by the "Roman-Catholic Status".[2] On August 15, 1930, the bishop of Bucharest was appointed metropolitan (the others becoming suffragans).[45]

A redefinition of ecclesiastical administration took place in formerly Austro-Hungarian provinces, corresponding with the new borders of Greater Romania: Latin Catholics in Bukovina became part of the

Ordinariate for Catholics of Armenian Rite in Romania.[45][5][46]

Communist period

Main article:
Anti-religious campaign of Communist Romania

Both the Latin Church and the

Communist regime, which subscribed to the doctrine of Marxist–Leninist atheism, was established. Early signs of this were present after Soviet authorities, when the Concordat came to be regularly disregarded by the Petru Groza government, partly based on suspicions that the Holy See was attempting to convert the Orthodox population (see Soviet occupation of Romania).[47] In parallel, after 1945, Vladimir Ghika and others led a movement calling for a union between the Latin Catholic and Romanian Orthodox Churches, which caused further suspicions from the new authorities.[47] The Romanian Catholic hierarchies also explicitly refused to let their clergy join the Romanian Communist Party, which singled it out among religious organizations in the country.[47]

In 1946, the Groza cabinet declared Apostolic Nuncio

consecrate bishops and administrators.[48]

The 1927 Concordat was unilaterally denounced on July 17, 1948[42][47] In December of the same year, the Greek-Catholic Church was disestablished, and its patrimony was passed to the Eastern Orthodox Church.[3][42][49] At least 70 Eastern Orthodox clergy were imprisoned for refusing to take over the seized Romanian Greek Catholic churches.[5] However, the general absorption of the Romanian Greek Catholics' property and clergy into the Romanian Orthodox Church was achieved, serving as perhaps the clearest example of how the Romanian Orthodox Church's cooperation with communist authorities elevated its societal standing.[39] Those Romanian Greek Catholics who left their church generally joined the Romanian Orthodox Church for its inherent Romanian identity. Others joined the Hungarian-majority Latin Church, leaving the Romanian Greek Catholic Church isolated and with only 10 percent of its pre-communist membership.[50]

New state regulations were designed to abolish papal authority over Catholics in Romania, and the Latin Church, although it was one of the sixteen recognized religions, lacked legal standing, as its organizational charter was never approved by the Department of Cults.[2][42][47] Until 1978, the celebration of Catholic Mass in Romanian language outside Bucharest and Moldavia was forbidden by the government.[51] Many foreign clerics, including the Jesuit superiors,[25] were intimidated and ultimately expelled.[47][48] The Apostolic Nunciature was also closed down on government orders in 1950, after O'Hara left the country.[48] By that year, Romania, like all other Eastern Bloc countries, cut off diplomatic contacts with the Holy See.[52] Only two dioceses were allowed (the Bucharest Diocese and the Alba Iulia Diocese),[2][48] while the banned ones continued to function in semi-clandestinity (their new bishops, appointed by the Holy See, were not formally recognized).[2] The Communists unsuccessfully attempted to convince Catholics to organize themselves into a national church, and to cease their contacts with the Holy See.[47]

Many Latin Catholic clerics, alongside their approximately 600 Greek-Catholics counterparts,

Franciscans) significantly reduced their activities.[2] A number of local Jesuits were kept in imprisonment or under house arrest at the Franciscan friary in Gherla (a situation which lasted for seven years).[25] The communist repression of against Latin clergy took a less severe form than that against first the Ruthenians of Galicia and then the Romanian Greek Catholics; it was met by resolve among all groups.[5]

In 1962, the Catholic population of Romania was reckoned at around 1.5 million Romanian Greek Catholics (primarily in Transylvania), 1.5 million Latin Catholics of mostly Hungarian and German ethnicity, with the Armenian Catholic population primarily found in the longstanding Transylvanian community.[5] During the relative liberalization of the 1960s, sporadic talks between the Holy See and the Romanian state were carried out over the status of Romanian Greek Catholic possessions, but without any significant result.[3] Romania became a Jesuit Province by 1974 (numbering, at that time, eight priests and five brothers).[25]

Post-1989

The situation normalized soon after the

archdiocese in 1991.[8] Religious institutes were once again permitted to function,[2] and Jesuit activities were freely resumed following the 1990 visit of Provincial superior Peter Hans Kolvenbach.[25]

Beginning in the 1980s, the Romanian Roman Catholic Church has taken part in several international gatherings to promote

Teoctist Arăpaşu, the Patriarch of All Romania.[49] Problems continued to be faced in the relation with the Orthodox Church, in respect to the status of Greek-Catholic status and property.[2][49]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ (in Romanian) "Primele date provizorii pentru Recensământul Populației și Locuințelor, runda 2021 "; retrieved January 7, 2022
  2. ^
    Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, Under-Secretariat for Culture and Religious Affairs
    ; retrieved February 21, 2015
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-8223-1241-7
  4. ^ a b Diversitate etnoculturală în Europa, at the Resource Center for Ethno-cultural Diversity; retrieved July 25, 2007
  5. ^ a b c d e Attwater, Donald, ed. (1962). "Ruminia, The Church in". A Catholic Dictionary (3rd ed.). The Macmillan Company. pp. 439–440.
  6. ^ Attwater, Donald, ed. (1962). "Armenian Rite, Catholics of the". A Catholic Dictionary (3rd ed.). The Macmillan Company.
  7. Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, Under-Secretariat for Culture and Religious Affairs
    ; retrieved July 25, 2007
  8. ^
    Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, Under-Secretariat for Culture and Religious Affairs
    ; retrieved July 25, 2007
  9. ^ Sorin Negruți (2014). "The evolution of the religious structure in Romania since 1859 to the present day" (PDF). Revista Română de Statistică (6): 43.
  10. ^ a b New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 12, p. 335
  11. ^ Ştefănescu, p.79, 128-131
  12. ^
    Encyclopedia Press
    , New York, 1913
  13. ^ a b c Ştefănescu, p.80
  14. ^ a b Ştefănescu, p.112
  15. ^ a b c Ştefănescu, p.116
  16. ^ Ştefănescu, p.74-76
  17. ^ Ştefănescu, p.93
  18. ^ a b Ştefănescu, p.94
  19. ^
    Encyclopedia Press
    , New York, 1913
  20. ^ Ştefănescu, p.16, 76
  21. ^ Ştefănescu, p.76
  22. ^ a b Vasile Maciu, "Costche Negri, un ctitor al României moderne", in Magazin Istoric, May 1975, p.68
  23. ^
    ISBN 0-521-84154-2
  24. ISBN 0-7506-3279-8
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p (in Romanian) "Repere istorice" Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine, at the Society of Jesus in Romania; retrieved July 25, 2007
  26. ^ a b (in Romanian) Jean Nouzille, "Ceangăii din Moldova" Archived 2009-05-07 at the Wayback Machine, in Magazin Istoric, February 2003; retrieved July 29, 2007
  27. ^
    România Liberă
    , March 7, 2007; retrieved July 25, 2007
  28. ^ "Head of Armenian Catholic Church Decorates Viktor Orbán". Hungary Today. 2 November 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
  29. ^ "Eastern rite church". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1998. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  30. ^ a b c d e Preda & Bucur, p.56
  31. ^ a b c d e f Preda & Bucur, p.57
  32. ^ a b Attwater, Donald (1937). The Catholic Eastern Churches (Revised ed.). Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Company. p. 102.
  33. ^
    Encyclopedia Press
    , New York, 1913
  34. ^
    Encyclopedia Press
    , New York, 1913
  35. ^ Giurescu, p.62, 269, 273
  36. ^ Giurescu, p.272-274
  37. ^ Preda & Bucur, p.56-57
  38. S2CID 36815615
    .
  39. ^ a b Ediger, Ruth M. (Fall 2005). "History of an Institution as a Factor for Predicting Church Institutional Behavior: the Cases of the Catholic Church in Poland, the Orthodox Church in Romania, and the Protestant Churches in East Germany". East European Quarterly. 39 (3).
  40. ^ Preda & Bucur, p.58
  41. ^ Preda & Bucur, p.58-59
  42. ^
    ISBN 973-669-175-6
  43. ^ Preda & Bucur, p.59
  44. ^ New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 12, p. 332
  45. ^
    ISBN 0-405-02747-8
  46. ^ "Armenian Catholic Church". Encyclopædia Britannica. 1998. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  47. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cristian Vasile, "The Apostolic Nunciature in Romania at the Beginning of the Communist Regime", in Annuario. Istituto Romeno di cultura e ricerca umanistica, 4 (2002); retrieved July 26, 2007
  48. ^
    ISBN 0-7546-3610-0
  49. ^
    ISBN 1-85743-186-3
  50. ^ Orlich, Ileana Alexandra. "Understanding Latent Religious Conflict: The Case of Frictions Between the Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Romania". Eastern European Quarterly. 42 (4): 409.
  51. ^ New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 12, p. 334
  52. ^ a b Associated Press, "Evolution in Europe; Links to the Vatican Restored by Romania", in The New York Times, May 16, 1990
  53. ^ New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 12, p. 333

References

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