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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: The Greek-Catholics from the Cenad Diocese in the XVIIIth century. The beginnings of the Greek-Catholic confession in Banat in the Arad area are directly and deeply influenced by a few major factors – The Orthodox Church, The Roman-Catholic Church and the Imperial Administration. The involvement of the local Roman-Catholic Church, the Cenad Diocese more exactly, is clear from the very beginning also through exercising the jurisdiction of this bishopric on the Greek-Catholic believers. This had a practical feature: the Cenad bishops were the Catholic hierarchs from the area. They supported the first intentions of confessional union in the diocese territory. Furthermore, due to the confessional instability of those who became united, the number of the Greek-Catholics is small in this period and did not provide the possibility of organizing a superior ecclesiastic forum of their own. The Imperial provincial administration attempted, by ensuring certain rights and benefits, to attract the Orthodox believers to the union with the Roman-Catholic Church. But in Banat the Romanians and some Serbs joined the union with the Roman-Catholic Church mostly due to severe injustices and corruption present in the high Orthodox hierarchy. The great taxes required by the Orthodox bishops caused resentments followed by the leaving of the Orthodox Church by some priests, often followed by the entire community. To these reasons we may add the influence of some Catholic monks, like the Piarists from Sântana, who tried to attract Orthodox priests and believers to the confessional union with the Church of Rome. The arrival on the territory on the Cenad Diocese of some Romanians from Transsylania, who were already of Greek-Catholic confession (in Zăbrani and Arad area) strengthened to a certain point the situation of the local Greek-Catholic communities. Although relatively small, considering the number of believers and parishes, the phenomenon of the Greek-Catholic confession is present in Banat and Arad throughout the entire XVIIIth century and it became more obvious with the arrival of the Greek-Catholics in this area starting with 1777, under the jurisdiction of the Greek-Catholic Bishops from Oradea, and even more after 1853, the year in which the Unite Romanian Greek-Catholic Bishopric of Lugoj was created.
Keywords: greek-catholics, Roman-Catholic Church, Cenad, Orthodox Church |
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