I've not yet been able to confirm this, but a friend who is normally well-informed in such matters reports that in the past day or so the beautiful Greek-Catholic Cathedral in Oradea Mare, Romania, has at last been returned to the Greek-Catholic Church. It was taken from us by force in 1948, when the Romanian Communist government declared the Greek-Catholic Church non-existent and gave all her properties to the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate. Please pray that this report is accurate. Multi Ani!

Incognitus

Yes, the rumour is true and confirmed by these news:

http://www.greco-catolic.ro/stiri.asp?id=11177

Here a summary of the news:

After about half a century, believers of the Greek Catholic Church have returned to Oradea's Cathedral on 20th November. The Apostolic Nuntio, the Greek-Catholic Patriarch of Ukraine, an Orthodox Bishop of Oradea and 17 Roman bishops from other countries as well as 120 priests and local authorities were present. The liturgy was broadcasted to all the world by Telepace channel.

http://www.greco-catolic.ro/stiri.asp?id=11174

Jean-Claude Périsset, Apostolic Nuntio to Romania and Moldova thanked St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the patron of this Cathedral in Oradea, given to its legitimate owners in a fraternal way by the Orthodox Church.

If this is true it is wonderful news......I can't read a lick of Romanian.

I remember Orthodox Romania welcomed John Paul II, of blessed memory, warmly and with open arms.

Praise be Jesus!
I am so happy to see some sense of justice for our Eastern Brethren.
Stephanos I

Confirmation by ZENIT:

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Code: ZE05121201

Date: 2005-12-12

Romanian Cathedral Recovered After 60 Years

Communist Regime Had Given It to the Orthodox Church

ORADEA, Romania, DEC. 12, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Romanian cathedral of Oradea has been returned to Eastern-rite Catholics after having been the property of the Orthodox for 60 years.

The restitution of St. Nicholas Cathedral to the Greek-Catholics took place Nov. 20, on the eve of the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple.

"All of us who attended have written a page of history. We celebrated together with patriarchs, metropolitans, Catholic and Orthodox bishops, for the greater glory of God," said Greek-Catholic Bishop Virgil Bercea of Oradea Mare.

The building of the cathedral was begun by Greek-Catholic Bishop Ignavie Darabant and completed by Bishop Samuil Vulcan, of the same rite, in 1810.

During the Communist regime, the cathedral and other real estate and properties of the Greek-Catholics were expropriated by the state and turned over to the Orthodox Church, Romania's state church.

After 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Greek-Catholic Church began negotiations to recover its properties.

Among those attending the Nov. 20 ceremony were Orthodox Bishop Joan Mihaltan of Oradea, Bihor and Salaj; Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Greek-Catholic patriarch of Ukraine; Adrian Lemeni, a government official responsible for worship; 17 Latin-rite and Eastern-rite Catholic bishops from Romania and abroad; and thousands of faithful.

Bishop Bercea, 48, said at the event: "I want to thank the priests and seminarians, our dear faithful, who, coming to the cathedral today, made me weep with them."

"But they have been tears of joy," he added, "and these tears, yours and mine, will surely help us to wash away all the evil there has been in our midst, so that between Orthodox and Greek-Catholics only love, good will and forgiveness will prevail."

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Amado