Implicarea Bisericii din Banat în mișcarea politică națională la începutul sec. al XX-lea
The Involvement of the Church in Banat in the National Political Movement at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: A discussion of the Church’s involvement in Romanian national life is a sensitive issue that requires a comprehensive approach and a careful examination of all the sources the documents provide. Living under Hungarian rule, Romanians in Transylvania and Banat were constantly threatened with denationalization, a process that intensified at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Because parishes and many denominational schools received state financial aid, the Church was unable to officially, publicly, and decisively express an anti-Hungarian stance. In Banat at the beginning of the 20th century, the national support movement focused on defending the Romanian nation's ecclesiastical autonomy and other rights. Here, one can speak of the Church’s influence in the resumption of an active policy within the Romanian National Party (through Archpriest George Popovici), the support for nationalist candidates in the pre-war Hungarian parliamentary elections, the efforts to introduce universal suffrage, and the steps taken to remove all political and cultural restrictions imposed on the Romanian people.

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