In a paper for the Nicolae Iorga Institute backed by information from the Securitate archives, Cristian
Vasile probed the perception of the Securitate on relations between the Vatican and Greek Catholics in Romania. Vasile offers an introduction to the historical issue:
After
December 1, 1948 the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was banned and many of its
clergy were injailed under the pretext of political offences or even "spying
activity”, whereas their only “fault” was the fidelity to their faith. The
Communist authorities tried to break the Greek Catholic faithful’s resistance
even through the agency of absurd measures, such as the removal of the Romanian
language from the Transylvanian Catholic Latin-Rite churches, for instance.
Even after 1965, the Greek Catholics, especially priests and prelats
(honourable persons like bishops Iuliu Hossu, Alexandru Todea, Iuliu Hirţea,
Ioan Dragomir and Ioan Ploscaru) were considered as “dangerous elements”, and they
were put under strict surveillance by the Securitate; they could not
leave the country for the sittings of the Second Vatican Council although the
Holy See invited them.
Among other things, Vasile's paper looks at Greek Catholic dissidents, including Doina Cornea, Viorica Hesia, Puiu Neamtu, and Maria Angelin. The persecution of the Greek Orthodox Church by the Romanian communist regime marks another sad chapter in the history of Romanian communism. For more on this topic:
- The Romanian Greek Catholic Church has a very resourceful website with lots of information in English.
- Memorandum to the Romanian State from the Greek-Catholic Believers from Romania and from the Entire World, September 2002.
- A document from a meeting in Sibiu 2007 in which the Romanian Orthodox and Greek-Catholic churches are declared "sister churches".
- Romanian Greek-Catholic Church History through the ages.
- For the specific history of a congregation, the History of St. Mary's Parish and of the Romanian Catholic Church is excellent.
- The Dintre Brazi Church (picture in this post) is the oldest Romanian church in Sibiu.
