DESFIINŢAREA BISERICII ROMÂNE UNITE (1948) ÎN MEMORIA ELITEI BISERICEŞTI
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ROMANIAN UNITARIAN CHURCH (1948). IN MEMORY OF THE CHURCH ELITE

Summary/Abstract: The present study attempts to highlight certain aspects regarding the manner in which the dissolution the Romanian Unitarian Church was perceived by part of the church elite. Consequently we have chosen to consider as an elite the best part of a community, that is those who contribute to the opinion creation, without disregarding also the meaning of organized minority, whose certain superiority and capacity to influence the social setting in which it resides is acknowledged at a social level. The study focused on a relatively small number of people, coming from various regions and backgrounds (bishops, vicars, monks, priests) and which we deemed as representative in order to illustrate the impact of the dissolution the Romanian Unitarian Church in 1948, as well as the sacrifices that were made for preserving the faith, in spite of all the constraints imposed by the repression authorities. Part of the information was retrieved from the field literature, archive sources, but also from oral sources coming from the area of the man who has suffered, who was forced to endure incarcerations, house arrests and a clandestine spiritual life in the “Underground Church” for decades. After 1948, when the Act of 1st of December gained a permanent and irrevocable meaning, the Unitarian Church became a thing of the past. The Romanian Unitarian Church pursued nevertheless its activity clandestinely, a fact which came also to the attention of the State Police leading thus to a more and more suffocating surveillance. The majority of the hierarchs and clerics of the Church United with Rome followed the path of prisons, labor camps and house arrests. Some of the priests managed to maintain their freedom by camouflaging their pasts, religious belonging and by continuing to hold the Greek-catholic religious sermons clandestinely. It was with great sacrifices that the regeneration and enhancement of the group of Greek-catholic priests was achieved, enabling thus the pursuit of their clandestine activity. In spite of all the restrictions against it, the “Underground Church” endured. The communist regime collapsed in 1989, but unfortunately the same cannot be concluded about the relationship it imposed among Christians. The bitter fruits that were sawn among them have led to the perpetuation of the conflict between the adherents of the two denominations (Orthodox and Greek- Catholic).

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