On 13.04.1948 the constitution of the Romanian People’s Republic passed. With this, for the Roman catholic as well as for the Greek catholic church in Romania a way of suffering and suppression started, which ended only on 22.12.1989, when the last dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was overthrown.
At the beginning of this era the Romanian episcopate was composed with this prelates:
Latin Rite:
Alba Iulia: 1938 – 1980 Bishop Aaron Marton
Bucureşti: 1924 – 1954 Archbishop Alexandru Cisar
Iaşi: 1947 – 1951 Bishop Anton Durcovici, 1944 – 1947 Administrator Bp. Markus (Marcu) Glaser
Satu Mare: 1942 – 1952 Bishop János Scheffler
Timişoara: 1930 – 1954 Bishop Augustin Pacha
While archbishop Cisar was impedited since 1949, the other bishops were imprisoned. Bishop Glaser was jailed in May 1950 and died this very month. Bishop Durcovici starved on 11.12.1951 in Sighet prison; on 31.10.2013 his martyrdom was acknowledged, and on 17.05.2014 he was beatified. Bishop János Scheffler died on 06.12.1952 in Bucharest. His martyrdom was accepted by the Holy See on 01.07.2010, and on 03.07.2011 he was beatified in Satu Mare.
Augustin Pacha, Bishop of Timişoara
Greek Rite:
Cluj-Gherla: 1917 – 1970 Bishop Iuliu Hossu, 1969 Cardinal „in pectore“
Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia: 1940 – 1953 Administrator Bp. Ioan Suciu
Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia: 1940 – 1950 Auxiliary Bishop Vasile Aftenie
Lugoj: 1936 – 1959 Bishop Ioan Balan
Maramureş: 1930 – 1963 Bishop Alexandru Rusu
Oradea Mare: 1922 – 1952 Bishop Valeriu Traian Frenţiu
From 1949 onwards, all Greek Catholic bishops were imprisoned for long years. Bishop Aftenie was shot on 10.05.1950 in the prison of the Department for Interior Affairs, and also bishops Suciu and Frenţiu died on 27.06.1953 resp. on 11.07.1952 in jail. Bishop Rusu died on 09.05.1963 in presence of future bishop Riti in Gherla prison. The beatification of these six bishops took place on 02.06.2019.
During dictatorship the Greek Catholic church was suppressed totally, and also the Latin rite got only some single new bishops:
Alba Iulia: 1971 – 1990 Coadjutor Antal Jakab, 1980 Bishop
Alba Iulia: 1981 – 1990 Auxiliary Bishop Lajos Bálint
Bucureşti: 1984 – 1990 Administrator Bp. Ioan Robu
Iaşi: 1965 – 1977 Petru Plesca, Titular Bishop of Voli, consecrated by Cardinal Confalonieri in Rome.
Episcopate of the blessed martyrs: uniated bishops Ioan Suciu, Alexandru Rusu, Valeriu Traian Frentiu, Iuliu Hossu, Ioan Bălan and Vasile Aftenie
The clandestine Cardinal: Bl. Iuliu Hossu, shortly before his death and on his catafalque, May 29, 1970.
Bl. Vasile Aftenie
Bl. Ioan Bălan
In 1948, Anton Durcovici became the last official bishop of the catholic church in Romania for a long time to be consecrated. In following years, several clandestine consecrations took place. All secret bishops of the first three generations were imprisoned for years.
Bishop consecration by Mgr. Gerald Patrick O’Hara, Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta and Regent of the Apostolic Nunciature in Romania from 1946 up to his expellation on 04./05.07.1950:
05.04.1948 Anton Durcovici, Bishop of Iaşi, + 11.12.1951
Bishop Bl. Anton Durcovici
After consecration in St. Joseph’s, Bucureşti: Archbishop Alexandru Cisar, Nuncio Gerald Patrick O’Hara and Bishop Bl. Anton Durcovici
Clandestine consecrations by Mgr. O’Hara in the chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature:
30.11.1948 Ioan Ploscaru, Titular Bishop of Trapezopoli and Auxiliary Bishop of Lugoj, + 31.07.1998
08.12.1948 Ioan Duma, Titular Bishop of Giuliopoli, + 16.07.1981
12.12.1948 Adalbert Boros, Titular Bishop of Ressiana and Ap. Administrator of Timişoara, + 06.06.2003
02.02.1949 Alfréd Eröss, Auxiliary Bishop of Alba Iulia, + 31.07.1950
14.02.1949 Szilárd Ignác Bogdánffy, Auxiliary Bishop of Satu Mare şi Oradea Mare, + 03.10.1953
06.03.1949 Ioan Maria Dragomir, Titular Bishop of Paleopoli di Pamfilia and Auxiliary Bishop of Maramureş, + 25.04.1985
28.07.1949 Iuliu Hirtea, Titular Bishop of Nebbi and Auxiliary Bishop of Oradea Mare, + 28.06.1978
30.06.1950 Joseph Schubert, Titular Bishop of Ceramussa and Ap. Administrator of Bucureşti, + 04.04.1969.
Bishop Bogdánffy died in Aiud prison; on 27.03.2010 the decrete of his martyrdom was published. On 30.10.2010 he was beatified in Oradea Mare.
Bishop Ioan Ploscaru
Bishop Adalbert Boros
Per crucem ad lucem: clandestine Bishop Ioan Duma, O. F. M. Conv. (above with his doctor and her mother, 1970)
Bishop Iuliu Hirtea
Bl. Szilárd Bogdánffy
Bishop Ioan Maria Dragomir (1905 – 1985)
Clandestine consecration by Mgr. Joseph Schubert, Titular Bishop of Ceramussa and Ap. Administrator of Bucureşti:
19.11.1950 Alexandru Todea, Titular Bishop of Cesaropoli, + 22.05.2002
Also Hieronymus Menges, born on 09.05.1910 and deceased on 20.04.2002, was scheduled for consecration to substitute bishop Schubert in case of his imprisonment. In fact, this never occurred because bishop Schubert went to jail without having had an opportunity to consecrate him. From 1951 up to 1952 Menges was special delegate of Bucureşti during bishop Schubert’s imprisonment. He himself went to jail in 1952 and was released in 1964. He declined the episcopal dignity which was offered him by the communist regime in 1965. In 1966 he was deported to Munich. He died in 2002 at Bremen.
Two Romanian Cardinals: Bl. Iuliu Hossu and Alexandru Todea. This photo was taken in 1969 in Caldarusani monastery, the confinement place of Mgr. Hossu.
From Cardinal Todea’s private album: Student of philosophy at Propaganda Fide atheneum, Rome 1935 – with his parents Gheorghe and Maria, deceased 1944 resp. 1956 – with three of his sisters, 1976.
Clandestine consecrations by Mgr. Valerian Traian Frenţiu, uniated Bishop of Oradea Mare:
25.04.1949 Tit Liviu Chinezu, Titular Bishop of Regiana and Auxiliary Bishop of Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia, + 15.01.1955
25.12.1949 Ioan Cherteş, Titular Bishop of Campania and Auxiliary Bishop of Cluj-Gherla, + 31.01.1992
Bishop Chinezu died in Sighet prison and was beatified in 2019. Bishop Cherteş, who’s date of consecration was said to have been on 25.12.1949, indeed obviousely had been consecrated already in spring, i. e. before papal confirmation, in Caldarusani monastery, where the uniated bishops were confined those time.
Bl. Tit Liviu Chinezu
Clandestine Bishop Ioan Cherteş
Clandestine consecration by Mgr. Alexandru Cisar, Archbishop of Bucureşti:
00.00.1951 Győző Viktor Macalik, Titular Bishop of Azoto and Auxiliary Bishop of Alba Iulia, + 17./19.08.1951
This consecration was celebrated without co-consecrators in Bucharest; bishop Macalik was imprisoned and murdered in August, 1951.
alleged additional consecrations:
03.12.1949 Gavrila Stan, in Oradea, by Iuliu Hirtea?
00.00.0000 Simion Crisan, in Blaj, by Iuliu Hirtea or Ioan Dragomir?
Mons. Stan, rector of Oradea Theological Academy, was imprisoned for a while in 1948; from 1951 up to 1955 he had to stay in jail again. Indeed, he had been scheduled to become a bishop but never was consecrated after the nunciature heard about his obvisousely celibate violation.
Also, Mons. Crisan was imprisoned from 1952 up to 1955 and once more from 1958 up to 1964; afterwards he lived as a simple worker in Aiud and Alba Iulia. As far as it is known today, he never was planned to be elevated and never was consecrated. Also priest Aureliu Lelutiu (born on 21.04.1914 at Oltet-Făgăraş and deceased on 23.12.1980 at Blaj), after Roman studies professor at Blaj and imprisoned from 1951 up to 1964, never was consecrated despite rumours.
Clandestine consecrations by Mgr. Ioan Maria Dragomir:
12.01.1983 Octavian Cristian, Bishop in Maramureş, + 31.01.1989
10.07.1984 Justin Paven, Coadjutor of Bishop Cristian, + 19.11.1999
18.04.1985 Emil Riti, + 21.02.2006
Bishop Dragomir, after the death of bishop Hossu, in fact became presiding hierarch of the Romanian Greek catholic church. This explains the three consecrations of the 1980s, which latest one bishop Dragomir, who bishop Octavian Cristian said has been created a cardinal „in pectore“ by St. Paul VI., one week before his own death had conferred on his death bed. Bishop Todea, afterwards only leader of the uniated church – St. John Paul II., after communism’s downfall, made him archbishop of Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia and created him a cardinal in 1991 -, seeked the formal acknowledgement of Dragomir’s consecration by the Holy See, which indeed only took notice in fact. Due to his heavy stroke and the critical opinion of Mgr. Ploscaru regarding this question no final result could be reached. Bishop Riti, a close co-worker of Mgr. Todea and himself in prison from 1950 up to 04.08.1964 as a witness of faith, officially never was confirmed. Maybe the circumstance played a role that Riti, after he was released from prison, was said to hold a too close relationship to Securitate (IM „Nicolae Popeşcu“).
The last generation of clandestine bishops: Octavian Cristian
… Justin Paven and
… Emil Riti.
Tu es Ep. in aeternum: Consecration attestation for Bishop Bishop Riti, written by his consekrator, Bishop Dragomir, on18.04.1985 in Bucureşti
Death of Bishop Dragomir (25.04.1985). At his coffin, from right: clandestine BishopsIoan Cherteş, Alexandru Todea and Ioan Ploşcaru
Consecrated in 1965 by Cardinal Confalonieri in Rome: Bishop Petru Plesca, Iaşi
The pictures on this page are from the archives of Hofrat Dr. Manfred Kierein, Vienna. The private picture of bishop Duma as well as his seal were contributed by Ioan Antal, the bishop’s nephew.
Additional photos of Ioan Duma as well as Joseph Schubert you can find here: