The Romanian Greek-Catholic Uniate Church (in Romanian: Biserica Română Unită cu Roma, Greco-Catolică) is a Catholic church which belongs to the Eastern Rites, and is one of the official churches of Romania. It also has a diocese in the US headed by Most Reverend John Michael Botean, DD under separate jurisdiction.

Its head since 1994 is Lucian Mureşan , whose title is Metropolitan of Romania .

Note that the Romanian Catholic Church refers to the Eastern Rite, or Greek-Catholic, system of belief. In Romania there exists a larger minority of Roman Catholics, which do not form part of the Romanian Catholic Church and adhere to the Latin Rite.

As of 2002, there were 191,000 Romanian Greek Catholics.

History

In 1698 in Transylvania, a part of the Romanian Orthodox Church granted ecclesiastical authority to the Pope, but retained the Orthodox rite. This was done in order for the Romanians of Transylvania (which was back then part of the Habsburg Empire) to obtain the same rights as the other nationalities of Unio Trium Nationum. Along with this came the arrival of the Jesuits who attempted to align Transylvania more closely with Western Europe.

The communist government banned the Greek-Catholic Church in 1948, the churches being confiscated and given to the Orthodox Church, the bishops being arrested for "undemocratic activity" and this fate being shared by many Greek-Catholic priests. The Romanian Catholics were "reaccepted" into the Orthdox Church in 1950 and only after the 1989 Romanian Revolution the church was reestablished.

External links

• Romanian Greek-Catholic Uniate Church - Official website (in Romanian)
• Greco-catolic.ro (in Romanian)
• St George Romanian Byzantine Catholic Diocese (english)