The Greek-Catholic Discourse of Identity in the Inter-War Period: The Relation between the Nation and People’s Religious Confession Ciprian Ghişa ”Babeş-Bolyai” University Abstract: The Greek-Catholic Discourse of Identity in the Inter-War Period: The Relation between the Nation and People’s Religious Confession. This paper aims to analyze the question of the confessional identity, focusing on one of its main constitutive elements: the relation between the nation and people’s religious confession. The national identity and the confessional one have numerous common characteristics, influencing each other more or less depending on the historical evolution of events. These aspects are more profound in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-confessional environment, as otherness is one of the strongest factors that defines and strengthens the confessional as well as the national identity. This was also the case of the Greek- Catholic Church in Romania, in the inter-war period, taking into consideration its new status after the Union of 1918: a minority church in a country with an Orthodox majority. Its relation of otherness with the Romanian Orthodox Church also influenced its relation with the state and therefore it determined also the structure and the intensity of its discourse of identity. Among the most important themes of this discourse we can mention: the Greek-Catholic Church is the church of the forefathers; this Church, its faith and its believers are Romanian; the Union with Rome brought the Romanian people a lot of benefices – to all the Romanians and not only to those from Transylvania; the Greek-Catholic Church is a victim and is persecuted by the Orthodox Church and by the state authorities; the preservation of the Catholic faith will ensure the deliverance, but will also protect the nation and its unity; the national unity will be strengthen by the realization of the religious union of the Catholic and Orthodox, but this must be done by the union of the Orthodox Church with the Church of Rome, having the Uniates as a model, and following the principles established by the Council in Florence. Keywords: confession, identity, nation, inter-confessional, otherness Rezumat: Discursul identitar greco-catolic în perioada interbelică: relaţia dintre confesiune şi naţiune. Acest articol analizează problema identităţii confesionale, concentrându-se asupra unuia dintre principalele sale elemente constitutive: relaţia dintre naţiune şi confesiune. Identitatea naţională şi cea confesională au numeroase caracteristici comune, influenţându-se reciproc, în funcţie de evoluţia evenimentelor istorice. Aceste aspecte sunt şi mai intense într-un mediu multi- etnic, multi-cultural şi multi-confesional, de vreme ce alteritatea este unul din cei mai puternici factori care definesc şi întăresc atât identitatea confesională cât şi pe cea naţională. Acesta a fost şi cazul Bisericii Greco-Catolice din România în Studia Universitatis “Babeş-Bolyai,” Historia 57, no. 2 (December 2012): 54–82 The Greek-Catholic Discourse of Identity 55 perioada interbelică, luând în considerare noul său statut de după 1918: o biserică minoritară, într-un stat cu o majoritate ortodoxă. Relaţia sa de alteritate cu Biserica Ortodoxă Română a influenţat şi relaţia sa cu statul şi a determinat şi structura şi intensitatea discursului său identitar. Printre cele mai importante teme ale acestui discurs putem aminti: Biserica Greco-Catolică este biserica strămoşească; această biserică, credinţa şi credincioşii ei sunt români; Unirea cu Roma a adus numeroase beneficii românilor, în general; Biserica Unită este o victimă şi este persecutată de Biserica Ortodoxă şi de autorităţile de stat; păstrarea credinţei catolice va asigura şi calea spre mântuire, dar va proteja şi naţiunea şi unitatea sa; unitatea naţională va fi întărită prin unirea religioasă a catolicilor şi ortodocşilor, însă aceasta trebuie să se facă prin unirea Bisericii Ortodoxe cu Biserica Romei, avându-i pe uniţi ca model şi urmând principiile Conciliului de la Florenţa. Cuvinte-cheie: confesiune, identitate, naţiune, inter-confesional, alteritate 1. Preliminary considerations This paper1 aims to analyze the question of the confessional identity, focusing on one of its main constitutive elements: the relation between the nation and people’s religious confession. A local ecclesial community evolves generally inside a smaller or larger part of a nation, sharing with it a series of values, which, in a considerable amount, are transferred to the ethnic element exactly from the religious confession that it embraces. Thus, the national identity, and the confessional one have numerous common characteristics, influencing each other more or less depending on the historical evolution of events. These aspects are more profound in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-confessional environment, as otherness is one of the strongest factors that defines and strengthens the confessional as well as the national identity. In my present research, I will approach the case of the Greek- Catholic Church in inter-war Romania, taking into consideration the fact that the issue of its confessional identity has been less researched so far. The Uniate Church was a Romanian church facing a totally new context after Transylvania’s unification with Romania, at the end of 19182. First 1 The present study was realized as a result of a research financed through the programme Programul Operaţional Sectorial Dezvoltarea Resurselor Umane 2007-2013, cofinanced through the European Social Fund, in the POSDRU project/ 60189 - “Programe postdoctorale pentru dezvoltare durabilă într-o societate bazată pe cunoaștere”. 2 The future bishop Alexandru Rusu described in an article entitled „The New Era and our Church”, published at the end of 1918, this new context in which the Uniate Church found itself after Transylvania’s union with Romania. He approached the main directions of change: the seize of the right of patronage held until that time by 56 Ciprian Ghișa of all, it became a minority church, in a state with a very large Orthodox majority. Nevertheless, it was not a small church either (one and a half million believers), almost half of the Transylvanian Romanians being Greek-Catholics, having also a significant number of faithful in the extra- Carpathian areas, due to the constant movement of people in the southern parts of the country and mostly in Bucharest. On the other hand, also because of population movements, Uniate parishes were formed in more remote areas as Bessarabia. It was not the only Romanian church. As I mentioned before, the church of the majority of the Romanians was the Orthodox Church, which passed through a process of reorganization after 1918 as well, of institutional consolidation, enjoying a new status and a greater prestige after its rise to the rank of patriarchy in 1925. It was a church that reasserted its role inside the world Orthodoxy, as one of the most powerful and active Eastern churches, a position that was of an even greater importance considering the tragic situation of the Russian Orthodox Church after the political and military victory of the Bolsheviks and the formation of the Soviet Union. Thus, it is significant to mention the fact that in 1921, the Metropolitan Miron Cristea suggested that the 8th ecumenical synod of the church should be organized in Bucharest, having the support of the government and the accept of the patriarchs from Constantinople, Antioch and Jerusalem3; or the church’s growing involvement in the world ecumenical movement, in a very intense dialogue especially with the Anglican Church, the Movement of the Old Catholics from Germany or with the ecumenical the king of Hungary; the change of the role of the church regarding the national problem – the church will be able to focus more on the spiritual matters (see also below); the change of the relation with the Orthodox Church which had the majority of the believers – eight times more than the Uniates; the government in Bucharest has a negative attitude towards the Greek-Catholic Church – the Uniates have a bad image in Bucharest, although there were many politicians that belonged to this confession; the relation with the government will depend also on the way in which the new provinces will be organized. He concluded: “A situation not exactly positive”, but not desperate, and the author saw the perspective for improvement. Al. Rusu, Noua eră și biserica noastră, in Cultura Creștină, 1918, year VII, no. 17-20, p. 336-339. 3 See a Greek-Catholic comment on the topic, signed by V. Macaveiu, in Cultura Creştină, 1921, year X, no. 10-11, p. 251-254. The Greek-Catholic Discourse of Identity 57 organizations Life and Work and Faith and Order, that established, later, in 1948, the basis for the Ecumenical Council of Churches4. Thus, the Greek-Catholic Church found itself in a situation of profound otherness, considering the fact that its relation to the Orthodox Church had always been very tense, with a lot of difficult moments in the 18th and 19th centuries. This otherness manifested at the level of the hierarchies but also at the local level, in the parishes and church districts, with conflicts that affected the life of the rural or urban communities. The problems were of diverse nature, issues regarding properties, cemeteries, church buildings, conversions, mixed marriages, confessional schools, local traditions and customs. This situation led both sides to strengthen their discourse of identity that had always had a very important component of otherness. The message was often very offensive, sometimes insulting, sometimes defensive, both discourses having a lot in common, being, in fact, very similar. A large part of the concepts, images and stereotypes were not new, being used in the polemic literature of the 18th or 19th centuries. Therefore, there are enough elements of continuity that formed the framework of the discourses of identity of the two Romanian traditional churches in the inter-war period. One should also consider the fact that after 1918, another fundamental factor that determines the existence and evolution of a church changed: the state – church relation.