The Romanian Greek-Catholic Church is concerned about the statement released by the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchy on September 29, 2009, which incites religious hatred and supports the process of cultural and religious cleansing that the Greek-Catholic Church is currently facing in Romania.
In that statement, the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchy said that the Greek-Catholic Church “intends to take in possession the Orthodox churches with the hope that the Orthodox believers will come with them as well,” and concluded that the Romanian Patriarchy would continue “to lobby to the Romanian authorities to adopt a law and practical solutions to resolve the patrimonial dispute between these two Romanian churches based on the current number of believers that each church has within the local community.”
“The current number of believers,” to which the Orthodox Patriarchy is referring in the statement, is the result of 40 years of communist persecution against the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church followed by 20 years in which the Greek-Catholic community is faced with a process of cultural and religious cleansing in Romania.
Some of the actions carried out after the fall of communism in Romania in 1989 to eliminate the Greek-Catholic Church from the religious life are:
- harassment, intimidation, death threats made against Greek-Catholic believers to not declare or manifest their faith;
- the intimidation and bullying of Greek-Catholic children in schools;
- the refusal of Orthodox priests to allow the burial of Greek-Catholics in the cemeteries;
- psychological terrorization of the Greek-Catholic communities, even in cases where they allowed the Orthodox Church to hold religious services in the Greek-Catholic churches;
- the provocation of religious hatred against the Greek-Catholic believers through religious and political discourses;
- intimidation and physical aggression against Greek-Catholic priests;
- Greek-Catholic churches kept closed while the Greek-Catholic believers have to pray in the streets or private homes;
- demolition or destruction of the Greek-Catholic churches;
- refusal of the Romanian authorities to carry out court orders that were ruled in favor of the Greek-Catholics.
The intention of the Orthodox Church, which maintains a religious majority in Romania, to lobby for a law that would legalize the affects of the aforementioned actions against the Greek-Catholic Church, which is a religious minority, gives cause for concern considering the upcoming presidential election that will soon take place in Romania.
It is hard to understand why, after 20 years since the fall of communism and the reinstatement of the Greek-Catholic Church, the Orthodox Patriarchy continues to attack the right of property of the Greek-Catholic Church, and instigate the public into hating Greek-Catholic believers through disinformation by presenting them as takers of Orthodox churches and believers.
The Romanian Greek-Catholic Church claims in the court of law only those churches and properties that were abusively confiscated from her in 1948 by the communist government. The Greek-Catholic Church was forced to appeal to the courts for justice because the Romanian State refuses to take any steps in repairing the injustice done in 1948 against her, and the Orthodox Church refuses any cooperation in resolving this situation.
The Romanian Greek-Catholic Church proved her good intention in fairly resolving this situation by allowing the Orthodox communities to use, at different hours, the few Greek-Catholic churches recuperated if the Orthodox didn’t have a church. Unfortunately, the Orthodox Patriarchy refuses to accept this solution, despite the fact that in Western Europe it doesn’t have a problem using the churches offered in the same way by the Roman-Catholic Church.
The Romanian State has the obligation, the competence and the moral duty to legalize the restitution of the properties confiscated from the Greek-Catholic Church by the communist regime. We ask the Romanian politicians not to make the violation of the right of property and the violation of religious freedom a platform during the presidential election.
The cultural and religious cleansing that the Greek-Catholic Church and its believers are facing in Romania has to stop. This will allow for an authentic democracy to take place, in which the rule of law prevails and justice will be available to all.
Press Office of the Major Archeparchy - Blaj
###
The document was translated in english from the official version in Romanian that can be found at the following address: http://www.bru.ro/blaj/pozitia-bru-fata-de-intentia-bor-de-a-sustine-legiferarea-epurarii-culturale-si-religioase/
Press release related to this document: Political Crisis in Romania Threatens the Catholic Minority.