The Greek-Catholic community is facing a cultural and religious cleansing in Romania

  • Thread starter Thread starter RoGca
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
RoGca said:
There are many things going on in Romania. Tomorrow we will make public a letter that was sent to the Embassies from Bucharest of every country part of the European Union in regards to the continuous demolition of the greek-catholic church from Sapanta, Maramures County.
Click to expand...
I briefly met two Romanian Catholics last year on the Net (one of them was from Romania itself), and I noticed a certain anger towards the EO. I never asked why they felt so angry. You have informed this ignorant sinner. Thank you. I’ll keep the Romanian Catholic Church in my prayers. Religious prejudice and bigotry is evil.

Blessings,
Marduk
 
Well my two cents is if I was stuck in a majority Orthodox Country and the political situation called for it I’d simply become Orthodox without any hesitation. I really don’t have any unique attachment to the Melkite Catholic Church in anyway that I don’t also have for an Antiochian or Greek Orthodox Church. Liturgically and Spiritually I can not tell the difference. If my eyes were closed and they spoke arabic I’d never know the difference.

There are some practical advantages over the Orthodox, Eastern Catholics have stronger endorsement against all contraception at all times for example (at least in the USA, in motherlands I cant see the difference). Being in communion is nice, but hey I’m not going to risk my life over it…Schism and heresy are two different things and.I dont think the Orthodox have anything worse than the Catholics when we add up the pros and cons. That’d be like I was risking my life to be SSPX vs Novus Ordo…If that makes me a heretic so be it and Lord have mercy on me.

I’ve read enough to know that the entire creation of the Eastern Catholic Churches (in formal communion with Rome again) was politics bewteen the Polish, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Ottoman Empires.

Basically it’s history repeating itself. I think that the Latin Churches Polish/German/French Emperors and or Pope made a mistake without regard for the welfare of the typical peasant who stood a chance at being attacked for accidently growing up in an Eastern Catholic village instead of an Orthodox village once the Russian empire came to suppress rebellions…

Indeed Lebanon serves as an example of the opposite reactions in the last three centuries…though their civil war displayed some bias (or murders) between orthodox and catholics.
 
Chris_McAvoy said:
Being in communion is nice, but hey I’m not going to risk my life over it…
Click to expand...
Wow! What a disrespectful slap in the face to those Romanian Greek Catholic priests and Bishops that were tortured and died for their Faith.
 
At the following addresses you can see black on white the destructions done to a Greek-Catholic church in Romania. The whole purpose of the destruction is to change the style of the Greek-Catholic church from neo-Gothic to Byzantine so the church won’t look like a catholic church anymore.

There is a court order that mandates the stoppage of any demolition or work performed to the church, but the Romanian State is not applying it so the demolition continues.

Press Release: Greek-Catholics Ask U.S. Secretary of State Clinton and European Union to Help End Religious Cleansing in Romania

Letter to all embassies from Romania whose countries are members of the European Union to help save the Greek-Catholic church in Sapanta
 
RoGca said:
The whole purpose of the destruction is to change the style of the Greek-Catholic church from neo-Gothic to Byzantine so the church won’t look like a catholic church anymore.
Click to expand...
I do sympathize with the plight of your church and I agree that what is happening is wrong.

However I can not agree that the neo-Gothic architectural style defines a Catholic church.

Naturally, there is no suitable excuse for what is happening. If the congregation itself was demolishing the buildings for their own purposes (such as putting up a brand new Byzantine style temple) I would have to say that’s fine. But this is harassment of the community coming from outside and I deplore it.
 
Hesychios said:
I do sympathize with the plight of your church and I agree that what is happening is wrong.

However I can not agree that the neo-Gothic architectural style defines a Catholic church.

Naturally, there is no suitable excuse for what is happening. If the congregation itself was demolishing the buildings for their own purposes (such as putting up a brand new Byzantine style temple) I would have to say that’s fine. But this is harassment of the community coming from outside and I deplore it.
Click to expand...
Hesychios,

If the romanian orthodoxs want to destroy any churches, they should destroy theirs not the greek-catholic one that they’ve got from the communists in 1948.

These churches are ours and they have to be returned. But, like US Department of State is saying, they rather destroy them than returning them back to the righful owner.
 
Any type of discrimination is wrong so that is something we can all agree on.

To be fair, the Romanian Patriarchate is also currently having some issues regarding property with the Bulgarian Patriarchate over a church in Bucharest.

However, it is interested to compare the relationship between Romanian Byzantines/Orthodox, Ukrainian Byzantines/Orthodox with Bulgarian Byzantines/Orthodox.

In the latter, the two communities have always peacefully co-existed, probably a bit of indifference between the communities, but there has never been issues between the two - both communities have issues with the State regarding property. I wonder whether this is due to how the Bulgarian Greek-Catholic Church came into existence - by individual choice of people - as opposed to being enforced.
 
The whole purpose of the destruction is to change the style of the Greek-Catholic church from neo-Gothic to Byzantine so the church won’t look like a catholic church anymore.
**
Emphasis added.

Do you mean Catholic church or Latin church?

Byzantine style is Catholic, too.**
 
Moslems destroying hindu temples , hindus destroying churches - all thankfully rare these days …

Yet, a people who know what it is revere and honor God as well as persons / properites set apart for God , for them to stoop to such levels …is it indicative of deeper problems …has the blind , almost idolatrous focus on form and externals overtaken and blinded what ought to matter lots more …

If so, should this be a wake up call for many …

Can see how insurmountable it seems to get over such deeply inculcated attitudes …

Then again, after the crucifiction, there can be resurrection, if …

For now, prayers, in union with our Bl.Mother , at the Cross, she whom God allowed to bear such pain …of seeing her Son , being tortured and killed …by her children …and to bear that pain , in the composure from trust …so that through generations , those who have to face similar sitautions would draw strenght and hope, power to be forgiving , without being hooked by the claws of satan, through bitterness and simmering hatreds …

may the stirrings of the hearts from seeing such also be reminders of the many many temples of the Holy Spirit being destroyed …and the repentance from all sides , may it bring forth newlife , at the heart levels , to start with …

Peace and prayers !
 
Thank you for the update and more of the reminder - to pray for the one promised antidote , of unity and for being a person of prayer for same !

Peace !
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top