, built by bishop
Grigore Maior Following the
Habsburg conquest of Transylvania in 1687, Metropolitan
Atanasie Anghel entered into full
communion with the
See of Rome by the Act of Union of 1698, that was formalized by a synod of bishops on September 4, 1700. This was part of the process the unification of the
Romanian Orthodox population to the Catholic Church (Rome's Church) newly created Greek Catholic Church, the former Orthodox Church of Romanians from
Transylvania. By entering into the Union, Atanasie and the other bishops, along with their respective dioceses, accepted the supreme authority of the
Pope, while at the same time being granted the right to keep their own
Greek Byzantine liturgical rite. A diploma issued by the
Emperor Leopold I declared that Transylvania's Romanian Orthodox Church is one with the Catholic Church and the
Holy See. Transylvanian Romanians were therefore encouraged to convert to Catholicism and join to the Romanian Unified Church (Greek-Catholic Church), while being able to retain the Byzantine rite, if at the same time they accepted four doctrinal points promulgated by the
Council of Florence (1431 and 1445): the supreme authority of the
Pope over the entire church; the existence of
Purgatory; the
Filioque clause; and the validity of the use of unleavened bread in the celebration of the
Eucharist in the
Latin Church (Eastern Orthodox had contended that Latin Catholic use of unleavened bread was erroneous). The step undertaken by Metropolitan Atanasie Anghel and his Holy Synod obtained for the ethnic Romanians of
Transylvania (then part of the
Habsburg monarchy) equal rights with those of the other Transylvanian nations, which were part of the
Unio Trium Nationum: the
Hungarian nobility, the
Transylvanian Saxons, and the
Székely. This event coincided with the arrival of the
Jesuits in Transylvania (second time), who attempted to align this province more closely with Western Europe. However, Orthodox Serbian authority and Protestant Transylvanian nobility were not willing to accept Romanians Orthodox converts, and this in turn led to the formation of Romanian Orthodox movements that advocated for freedom of worship for the entire Transylvanian population – most notable the movements led by serbian monk Visarion Sarai, Nicolae Oprea Miclăuş, and the bosniac monk
Sofronie of Cioara, under the influence of the dominant Serbian Orthodox Church. In 1721, the bishop's residence was moved from
Alba Iulia to
Făgăraș, and eventually to
Blaj (1737). Following this change, Blaj became a center of learning and national awakening for all Romanians.. In 1761,
Petru Pavel Aron (1709–1764), the Bishop of Făgăraș and head of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, translated
Biblia Vulgata into Romanian. While the Romanian Orthodox kept
Church Slavonic as the official liturgical language till 1863, the Romanian Church United with Rome has been using the Romanian vernacular ever since its inception. In the 19th century, during a time when the Hungarian government was pursuing a
Magyarization policy in Transylvania, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, with the aid of the
Transylvanian School (Școala Ardeleană) and the
Transylvanian Memorandum, played a prominent role in resisting ethnic
assimilation attempts. Moreover, many leading figures of the Romanian emancipation movement in Transylvania, such as
Simion Bărnuțiu and
Iuliu Maniu, began their careers as lay servants of the Greek-Catholic Church. Additional Greek-Catholic Eparchies were eventually set up at Oradea (1777), as well as Gherla and Lugoj (1853); Blaj, under the title of Eparchy of Alba Iulia and Făgăraș, became the metropolitan (i.e. archiepiscopal) see. On December 16, 2005, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church was elevated to the rank of
major archiepiscopal church.
Persecution under communism After assuming political power in 1948, the
Communist regime, rooted in
Marxist–Leninist atheism, deposed all 12 bishops of the Greek-Catholic Church on Stalin's orders. Moreover, on October 21, 1948, the 250th anniversary of the Romanian Greek Catholic Union with the Catholic Church, the regime arranged for the "voluntary" and "spontaneous" transfer of all members of the Greek-Catholic Church (decree 358/1948), that numbered more than 1,500,000 at the time, to the
Romanian Orthodox Church; furthermore, the property rights over many of the Greek-Catholic Church's possessions, including its four cathedrals, were transferred to the
Romanian Orthodox Church, while the remainder of those properties were confiscated by the Romanian State. The Greek-Catholic bishops, along with many of their priests, were accused by the newly installed Communist authorities of "antidemocratic activity". After refusing to give up their ties with the "reactionary"
Holy See, they were imprisoned. At about the same time, the Orthodox Church was being "purged" of priests hostile to the Communist regime. Following this purge, the
Orthodox hierarchy enjoyed good and unforced relations with the communist authorities for the remainder of the
Communist Rule of Romania.
Iuliu Hossu,
Bishop of Cluj, turned down a proposal of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch,
Iustinian Marina, to convert to
Orthodoxy and be named Orthodox Archbishop of
Iaşi and metropolitan of
Moldavia, and thereby become the official successor of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch himself. Consequently, Hossu remained under house arrest. Year after year, he sent Memorandums to the President of the Republic, requesting that the country's laws and international agreements be observed with regard to the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church. In 1969,
Pope Paul VI asked Hossu to allow himself to be made a
cardinal. As Hossu was reluctant to leave Romania, the pope made him a cardinal only
"in pectore", i.e. without publishing the fact, and this was only revealed on March 5, 1973, three years after Hossu's death. Another remarkable Romanian Greek-Catholic ecclesiastic of the time was
Alexandru Todea (1912–2002). Secretly consecrated a
bishop on November 19, 1950, he was arrested and the following year he was sentenced to life in prison. He was granted amnesty in 1964. On March 14, 1990, after the
fall of the Communist regime, he was appointed Archbishop of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia, and was made a cardinal the following year. After more than 40 years of clandestine existence, the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic re-emerged publicly, in the wake of the
Romanian Revolution. Normative Act 9/31, passed on December 31, 1989, repealed Decree 358/1948 (that outlawed the Greek-Catholic Church) as repugnant and bringing grave prejudice upon the Romanian state. Only after much struggle and considerable delays, some of the church's properties, in particular the
cathedrals of Cluj, Blaj, Lugoj, and Oradea, were restored to their rightful owner. However, much of the original property remains in Romanian Orthodox or government hands, as the persecution started in 1948 has led to a marked reduction in the numbers of Romanian Greek Catholic faithful. After 40 years of Communist rule and forced assimilation into the regime-approved Orthodox Church, numerous Romanian cradle Greek-Catholics remained in the Romanian Orthodox Church, at least on paper, and it is unclear how many of these nominal Orthodox members remain
crypto-Catholic, especially in northern
Transylvania where most Greek Catholics lived (as shown on the maps to the right). Other Greek Catholic Romanians switched to the Latin Church, and now account for the second-largest group in that denomination after Hungarians. The Romanian Church United with Rome is still undergoing a process of recovery from the wounds inflicted by the Communist rulers and the forced merger.
Property issues since the fall of communism Since the fall of communism, church leaders have claimed that the Romanian Greek-Catholic Community is facing a cultural and religious wipe-out: the Greek-Catholic churches are allegedly being destroyed by representatives of the
Romanian Orthodox Church, whose actions allegedly enjoy not only the acceptance, but also the support of the Romanian authorities. ==Ecclesiastical structure==