A MISSED OPPORTUNITY: THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY: THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

Summary/Abstract: The only one of the Orthodox Churches which did not send observer-delegates to the Second Vatican Council, the Romanian Orthodox Church, has missed the opportunity of an ecumenical opening, very fashionable for that time and which, in addition, would have relieved it from many outright accusations, reproofs and attacks. On one hand it was a victim of the imposed control and of decisions taken by the political and administrative bodies of the time, first of all by the Department of Cults, and on the other hand we must mention that Romanian Patriarchy has hidden and even has felt comfortable behind these imperatives of the regime. A common fear has united the Church and the atheist state in this cause, namely the fear that the issue of the former Greek-Catholic Church would reappear as one of not only ecclesiastic interest, yet also political, at internal and international level.

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