Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic Biserica Română Unită cu Roma, Greco-Catolică |
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Location | |
Country | Romania |
Territory | Romania |
Metropolitan | Blaj |
Statistics | |
Population - Total |
150,593 (2011 Census) or 663,807 (2012 Annuario Pontificio) |
Information | |
Established | 1698, formalized 1700 outlawed in 1948 allowed March 14, 1990 |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Lucian Mureșan |
Website | |
bru.ro |
The Romanian Greek Catholic Church or Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic (Romanian: Biserica Română Unită cu Roma, Greco-Catolică) is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church, in full union with the Roman Catholic Church. It has the rank of a Major Archiepiscopal Church and it uses the Byzantine liturgical rite in the Romanian language.
Since 1994, Cardinal Lucian Mureșan, Archbishop of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia serves as head of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church. On December 16, 2005, as the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic was elevated to the rank of a Major Archiepiscopal Church by Benedict XVI, Lucian Mureșan became its first Major Archbishop. Mureşan was eventually created a cardinal, at the Consistory of February 18, 2012.
Besides the Archeparchy of Fǎgǎraș and Alba Iulia, there are five more Greek-Catholic eparchies in Romania: (Eparchy of Oradea Mare, Eparchy of Cluj-Gherla, Eparchy of Lugoj, Eparchy of Maramureș and Eparchy of Saint Basil the Great of Bucharest), as well as one eparchy overseas, the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St George's in Canton, answering directly to the Major Archbishop and the Holy See, in the United States of America and Canada.