Romania is situated in Central Europe, in the northern part of the Balkan
Peninsula and its territory is marked by the Carpathian Mountains, the
Danube and the Black Sea. Romania has inland borders with Moldova, Ukraine,
Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, and a coastline on the Black Sea.
With its temperate climate and varied natural environment, which is
favorable to life, the Romanian territory has been inhabited since time
immemorial. The research done by Romanian archaeologists has led to the
discovery of traces of human presence dating back as early as the Lower
Paleolithic (approximately two million years BC). These vestiges are among
the oldest in Europe.
Born, like the other Romance people, in A.D. 1st millennium, the Romanian
people has continuously inhabited the selfsame geographical place from the
old times to this day, a space where its forefathers belonging to the
Thracian king had arrived as early as the 2nd millennium B.C. Today the
Romanians are the sole descendants of the Eastern Roman world, and their
language, along with Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian, is one of the
major of-spring of Latin. They are the sole people who by their name - roman
(deriving from the Latin romanus) have preserved to this day the memory of
the Seal of Rome, a memory to be perpetuated later in the name adopted by
the nation State Romania. The Romanians are today the only descendants of
the Eastern Roman stock; the Romanian language is one of the major heirs of
the Latin language, together with French, Italian, Spanish; Romania is an
oasis of Latinity in this part of Europe.
Historical and archaeological evidence and linguistic survivals seem to
confirm that the present territory of Romania had a fully developed society,
with a high degree of economic, cultural, and even political development,
long before the Roman armies crossed the Danube into what became known as
the province of Dacia. Roman influence was profound and created a
civilization that managed to maintain its identity during the great folk
migrations that followed the collapse of the empire. The first mention of
Walachs (Volokhs, Vlachs), the name given to the Romanian people by their
neighbors, appears in the 9th century.
During the medieval period there two independent Romanian feudal states took
shape, with mountain crests marking a political frontier: their conventional
names are Walachia (called in Romania Tara Româneasca, literally “Romanian
Land") and Moldavia (Romanian: Moldova), both on the southern and eastern
slopes of the Carpathians. Initially, the core areas of these states were
centered in the foothills of the Carpathians; only later, as the Romanian
lands on the plains were gradually consolidated, were the major settlements
transferred from the mountains, first to Târgoviste and Suceava and later to
Bucharest and Iasi.
Transylvania was affected during the Middle Ages by colonization by
Hungarian-speaking Szeklers and German-speaking Saxons. More German
speakers, known as Swabians, arrived in the Banat in the 18th century along
with various Slav groups, mainly Serbs. Meanwhile, Turkish rule left an
ethnic legacy of Turks and Tatars along the lower Danube, and Gypsies
settled in all parts of the country. Jews from Poland and Russia arrived
during the first half of the 19th century.
Mostly Christians of Orthodox rite, the Romanians lived from the Middle Ages
to the modern times in three neighboring self-dependent principalities:
Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania - which for their location at the
crossroads of big expansionistic empires the Ottoman Empire, Czarist Russia
and the Hapsburg Empire-, managed to preserve their state entity, faith and
civilization, at the time when neighboring kingdoms like Byzantium,
Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary or Poland had been wiped off the map of Europe.
Later, they managed to achieve national unity in 1859, a process eventually
completed in 1918. At the end of World War I, the centuries-old dream of
reunification of all the Romanians within the boundaries of one single
nation-state came true, paid with the sacrifice of over 800,000 lives. The
ensuring two decades of economic, political and cultural advance are cut
short soon after the outbreak of World War II, in 1940, when one third of
the country's area and population is amputated. In 1945, after 4 years of
war, which left another 700,000 people dead, the nearly one-century long
democratic traditions (with all the inherent imperfections) are cut short by
Soviet troops and the forcible imposition of the communist regime.
The hopes awakened by the distance taken from the Soviet model over
1960-1968 are soon dispelled by the advent to power of most oppressive and
absurd totalitarian regime - that of Nicolae Ceausescu. That devastating
dictatorial rule is brought to an end by the people's revolt of December
1989, which closes the historical gap Romania lived in for 45 years and
opened a new page in Romania's contemporary history. Conditions were created
for a final breakaway from the communist regime and paved the way for the
restoration of democracy based on the multi-party system and a market
economy. The adoption of the new Constitution on 21 November 1991, the free
parliamentary and presidential elections of May 1990 and September 1992 were
as many steps on the path to the irreversible breakaway from the
totalitarian past.
Demographic structure: Romanians - 89.47%;
Hungarians (plus Szecklers) - 7.12%; Gypsies - 1.76%;
other nationalities - 1.65%.
The Romanians are today the only descendants of the Eastern Roman stock;
the Romanian language is one of the major heirs of the Latin language,
together with French, Italian, Spanish; Romania is an oasis of Latinity in
this part of Europe.
About Byzantine Romanian Catholic Church
Most Romanians are members of The Romanian Orthodox Church. Catholics of
Oriental and Roman rites are well represented (5%). There are also Reformed /
Lutheran (3%), Unitarian (1%), Neo-Protestant, Armenian, Moslem and Jewish
communities.
However, there are still in Romania some religious tensions between the
Orthodox majority and some of the smaller churches, as legacy of the old
communist regime.
By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the majority of The
Orthodox Church in Transylvania, had broken away from the Orthodox Church and
accepted papal authority and the entire dogma of The Catholic Church while
retaining the Orthodox ritual, canon, and calendar, and conducting the worship
service in Romanian. A ‘suis juris’ Romanian Catholic Church of The Byzantine
Rite flourished for 250 years in what it is today modern Romania.
In 1948, on Stalin’s orders the local communist government in an obvious
attempt to use religion to foster political unity; the country's 1.7 million
Uniates were forcibly attached to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Some 14,000
‘recalcitrant priests’ were arrested, thousands of faithful were murdered
during incarceration, and many others died from disease and hunger. All 12
Bishops were put in camps and most of them died as martyrs. Their
beatification cause is in advanced stages in Rome.
That the Romania Greek-Catholic Church survived, albeit precariously and
underground, long after it officially had ceased to exist was an embarrassment
to the regime. Even in the mid-1980s, there were still some 1.5 million
believers, 300 priests continued to minister with the risk of loosing their
life and another 450 priests were secretly trained. The Church had three
underground bishops, one of them created a Cardinal by a Pope Paul VI. After
1977 some Byzantine Catholic clergymen led a movement demanding the
reinstatement of their church and full restoration of rights in accordance
with constitutional provisions for freedom of worship. In 1982 the Vatican
publicly expressed concern for the fate of the Uniates and supported their
demands. The Romanian authorities protested this act as interference in the
internal affairs of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The Romanian Byzantine Catholic Church suffered particular hardship during the
Communist regime and so far only after 12 years of newly regained freedom, 120
of the more than 2,300 church properties of 1948 have been returned. All this
makes reconciliation even more vital.
"Challenge to Reconcile"
The meaning of reconciliation in Romania was preceded by patient work to
heal the wounds that emerged between Catholics and Orthodox following the fall
of the Communist regime.
Pope John Paul II has made history by becoming the first pontiff to visit a
mainly Orthodox country. During his May 7-9 visit to Romania the Pope was
enthusiastically welcomed by the country's Catholic minority and warmly
received by the head of Romania's Orthodox Church, Patriarch Teoctist, and the
Church's Synod.
The road of reconciliation passed through an important stage in Bucharest,
Romania, in May 1999 when the embrace between the Bishop of Rome and Patriarch
Teoctist helped to overcome misunderstandings.
While in Romania, the Pope spoke several times of the need for reconciliation
between the Orthodox and Catholic Church. For Pope John Paul II reconciliation
among Christians is the most pressing challenge for the churches as they begin
the new millennium. "I express the hope that Christians will find themselves,
if not fully united, closer to full communion," he said on May 9, 1999.
"My visit is meant to strengthen those ties between Romania and the Holy See
which were so important for the history of Christianity in the region... The
seed of the Gospel, fallen on fertile ground produced abundant fruits of
holiness and martyrdom during these two millennia...
"Your country has experienced the horrors of harsh totalitarian systems. The
communist regime suppressed the Byzantine-Romanian rite united with Rome and
many [Catholics] paid with blood... I would also like to give due recognition
to the members of the Romanian Orthodox Church... who suffered similar
persecutions and grave restrictions... After the harsh winter of communist
domination came the springtime of hope... Romania began a process of
reestablishing a state governed by law with respect for freedom... I hope that
your nation will not lack the political and financial support of the European
Union.
"To heal the wounds of a recent and bitter past one needs patience and wisdom...
It is a challenge especially for you young people... Do not be afraid to
accept your responsibility... Romania, bridge between East and West,
crossroads between Central and Eastern Europe, called the beautiful title
Garden of Mary, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ... On the threshold
of a new millennium, once again set your future on the rock of the Gospel..."
He concluded with ecumenical thoughts: "For Christians these are days of
forgiveness and reconciliation. Without this witness the world will not
believe: how can we credibly speak of God who is love if there is no respite
from conflict? Heal the wounds of the past with love. May your shared
suffering not lead to separation but accomplish the miracle of reconciliation.
Is this not the marvel that the world expects from believers?"
UP
