Ecumenism Begins at Home: Orthodoxy and the Romanian Greek Catholic Church

Abstract This article examines the relations of the Romanian Orthodox Church (RoOC) towards the Romanian Greek Catholic Church ( rgcc ), a Byzantine rite church formed around 1700. Until World War ii , the rgcc was a substantial ecclesial entity, but in 1948 the new communist leaders of Romanian dissolved the ugcc and seized its properties, allowing the RoOC the use of most religious properties. Former rgcc clergy who did not join the RoOC were persecuted, but the church survived underground, emerging in 1989 with considerably fewer adherents than in 1948. Attempts by the rgcc to recover properties seized in 1948 were met with strong resistance by RoOC hierarchy and parishes. Notwithstanding the involvement of the RoOC in ecumenical undertakings, it has not acted in accordance with Christian principles and in conflict with its commitment to ecumenism, by supporting the dissolution of the rgcc , and its opposition to the restoration of seized properties.