_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________ Romania ________________

A break in dialogue?
Frustrated Byzantine Catholics turn to courts
A Romanian Catholic diocese is bringing a lawsuit against the local Romanian Orthodox Church, in an effort to recover possession of an old monastery. The move could bring about the suspension of dialogue between the Romanian Catholic and Orthodox churches.

In recent months, Byzantine-rite Romanian Catholics have agreed to bring all disputes over parish properties before a joint Catholic-Orthodox commission. However, Romanian Catholic leaders have complained that the commission has failed to move on their request for the restoration of Catholic property.

Romanian Catholics have also frequently expressed concerns that they are under heavy pressure from the Vatican to forsake their property claims for the sake of ecumenical progress. The continuing conflicts between the Romanian Catholic and Orthodox churches have frequently been cited by Orthodox leaders—most notably Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow—as a factor that blocks the road toward Christian unity.

The property disputes stem from the confiscation of all Romanian Catholic property by the country’s previous Communist regime, which sought to suppress the Eastern Catholic Church. All Romanian Catholics were ordered to join Orthodox parishes, or face imprisonment. With the fall of the Communist empire, and the restoration of the Romanian Catholic Church, disagreement arose over the legal custody of property that had been in Catholic hands, and was now held by Orthodox parishes.

In 1948, there were 2,012 Romanian Catholic churches in the country. All were handed over to the Orthodox Church when the Communist regime outlawed the Byzantine-rite Catholic Church. Since the fall of Communism, the Romanian Catholic Church has petitioned for the return of 160 church buildings, and the right to share the use of 227 other parish churches that were originally in Catholic hands. Despite years of ecumenical dialogue, Orthodox officials have transferred only six churches back to Catholic parishes; not a single petition for joint use of a parish church building has been accepted.

The particular property in the current dispute is a monastery at Nicula. In 1697, a Marian icon at Nicula reportedly began weeping, fueling enthusiasm for a movement to restore communion between the Romanian Church—which was then entirely Orthodox—and the Holy See. After that unity was restored in the Transylvania region, the newly constituted Romanian Catholic Church built a monastery around the Marian shrine. The monastery remained in Catholic hands until 1948, when it was handed over (along with the local parish church) to the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Cluj.

Now the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Cluj-Gherla (an eparchy is the Eastern equivalent of a diocese) has brought suit for the restoration of the monastery at Nicula. The likely results of the secular lawsuit are uncertain. However, because Romanian Catholics have broken from the agreement to resolve all such problems within the joint ecumenical commission, it is quite possible that the suit could bring a halt to that dialogue.

When the lawsuit was first announced, Romanian Orthodox officials generally met the news with a studied silence. But the Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu of Banat virtually conceded the justice of the Catholic claim. “As I have said previously, and I will not cease to say, it is worse than revolting, what is happening here,” Metropolitan Nicolae said. He said that Orthodox dioceses should restore Catholic properties “at Nicula and in other places.”

Although Romanian Catholic officials were gratified by that bold statement from the Orthodox prelate, they were not entirely surprised. Metropolitan Nicolae is the only Romanian Orthodox leader who has consistently honored Catholic claims to property that had been confiscated. The response of other Orthodox prelates—still being awaited as CWR went to press—was likely to be much less sympathetic.

Sodomy law removed
Under pressure from European Union
Romania has scrapped a law banning sodomy after the European Union made the removal of the law a condition for the country’s entry into the Union.

The Romanian Orthodox Church reacted negatively to the change in law noting that laws are needed to halt homosexual propaganda which is damaging to the family. Bishop Vincentiu Ploisteanu, spokesman for the Orthodox Church’s Holy Synod, condemned the pressure by the European Union. “We want to join the European Union, not Sodom and Gomorrah,” he said.

Back to Catholic World Report February 2002 Table of Contents