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I am a senior in high school and am currently involved in an independent study on the history of Romania's churches. I am in the process of writing my final paper but have found some significant holes in my research, primarily from the 19th century to the present day. I intend to focus on the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, while still providing information on the Roman Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, and Romanian Orthodox Churches. Any information you may know or sources you could direct me to regarding the following questions would be a great help. Thank you!

1) What important events occurred or changes were made in any of these churches in the 19th century? Did Greek Catholic Church practices or organization change in any notable way in the 19th century? Who were its important bishops?

2) What is the current Greek Catholic position on Purgatory, papal primacy, icons, leavened vs. unleavened bread at communion, and the filioque? How are the practices and doctrines similar to those of the Roman Catholic Church? The Orthodox Church?

3) How did the Greek Catholic Church survive “underground” during the Communist regime, even though it was supposedly “reunited” with the Orthodox Church? What has changed/is changing since the fall of Communism in Romania? What is happening with the smaller sects in Romania?

-Lisa

) What important events occurred or changes were made in any of these churches in the 19th century? Did Greek Catholic Church practices or organization change in any notable way in the 19th century? Who were its important bishops?

The Orthodox Church gained its autocephally until 1879 and the religious changes were closely related to the political changes of the borders between the Hungarian Empire, Turkey, Rom�nia...
The Orthodox authors (specially those of the times of HB Iustinian) state that the GCC was created only because of the Hungarian inlfunece without national roots but this is not correct. The Orthodox faithful and bishops of Transylvania and other Romanian regions chose the union with Rome because they were under the "dictatorship" of Greek bishops who introduced a lot of hellenizations and bulgarizations, and the protestant reform was popular among the Magyar in these regions. The Monk who led the revolt against the BRU, Visarion, is seen as a patriot by the BOR and as a traitor by the BRU, because it's said that he was an ethnic Greek and not a Romanian (but who knows???).
Miron Cristea, the first Patriarch of the BOR was a former uniate Bishop with latin influences and the "latinizations" of his succesors caused a schism: the true Orthodox Church (that followed the Old Calendar). One part of this group entered to communion with Rome, and the rest formed a church led by Saint Glicherie. The members of this last group were martyred by the Monarchy. The inlfuence of the Roman theology was very strong among Orthodox authors in Romania.

2) What is the current Greek Catholic position on Purgatory, papal primacy, icons, leavened vs. unleavened bread at communion, and the filioque? How are the practices and doctrines similar to those of the Roman Catholic Church? The Orthodox Church?

Unfortunately the hierarchy of the BRU is formed by former latin rite bishops (maybe because the native byzantine rite bishops were not prepared for the Episcopacy, due to their clandestine existence) and most of them accept a lot of latinizations: azyma, statues, latin vestements and filioque. But the BOR has some latin items too (architecture of the churches and statues). In some villages, Orthodox priests brought their pariches back to Greek catholicism, and these`parishes are not too latinized.

3) How did the Greek Catholic Church survive “underground” during the Communist regime, even though it was supposedly “reunited” with the Orthodox Church? What has changed/is changing since the fall of Communism in Romania? What is happening with the smaller sects in Romania?

Sects are working a lot: Iehova's witnesses, Pentecoastal, born again christians... but their percentage of faithful hasn't changed and they're still a minority.
Although the BRU existed underground, the parishes were active and some of them didn't break Communion with Rome (secretly). As a said before, after the fall of the communist regime, Orthodox priests have brought their parishes back to Greek Catholicism, although the property of the temples has not been given to the BRU (at least not oficially), and their situation is not as bad as some BRU activists say.
These activists think that people whose parents or grandparents were Greek Catholic and became Orthodox, must return to the BRU and this is ridiculous.

Dear Remie,

Trieste Romania!

Alex