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    STUDIA HISTORIA - Issue no. 2 / 2006  
         
  Article:   ADMINISTRATIVE AND TERRITORIAL STRUCTURE OF GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TRANSYLVANIA : INSTITUTIONAL AND TERMINOLOGICAL POINTS OF VIEW.

Authors:  CIPRIAN GHIŞA.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  In the documents referring to the organizational system of the Greek-Catholic Church, the historian may find a large series of specific terms designating various central or local institutional structures, which are not completely clarified by the Romanian historiography. Therefore, the researcher is confronted with real difficulties of interpretation and understanding. The main reason for this situation is the mixture created in time, of numerous elements typical of the Roman-Catholic Church with the Eastern tradition of the Uniate Church. This mixture was visible for the administrative and territorial structure as well. The classic administrative structure of the Uniate Church from Transylvania might be considered the one existing during the 18th century until the beginning of the pastoral office of bishop Ioan Bob. The Latin influences increased due to the more and more obvious need of reorganization and modernization of the administrative and institutional structure of the Greek-Catholic Church that functioned with difficulty especially after the decline of the monastery from Blaj. Some of these organizational elements of Latin origin are: the institution of capitulum; the institution of vicarius foraneus; the establishment of a hierarchy of the honorific titles from the level of the archpriests – archidiaconus actualis, vicearchidiaconus and administrator archidiaconalis; the privilege to become a member of the Episcopal consistorium was reserved only to archidiacones actuales; the institution of decanus held by the canons of the Episcopal capitulum. The source of inspiration for all these changes occurred at the end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century was the structural model of the Roman-Catholic bishoprics and, most of all, of the Greek-Catholic bishoprics from Hungaria: Oradea and Muncaci. After the re-establishment of the Uniate metropolitan see in 1853, and mostly after 1870, the period of the first provincial synods, started the process of make uniform the administrative and territorial structures of the Romanian Uniate Church. It was a process of long standing in time. The bishopric of Oradea maintained a structure very similar to the one of a Latin dioceses until the beginning of the 20th century. The new dioceses of Lugoj and Gherla took over a lot of structural elements copying the model of the bishopric of Oradea, which co-existed with the institutional realities of Transylvanian type – the model of the bishopric of Făgăraş. A general uniform structure was established only in the inter-war period from the 20th century: the main territorial structure remained only the districts led by archpriests; the institution of vicarius foraneus was maintained; the territorial structure of decanatus disappeared; in time, the title of vicearchidiaconus disappeared as well.  
         
     
         
         
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