Martyrs of Communism from Romania

Fifty years from now, which of our current political and Church leaders will be remembered and honored by Catholics in the U.S.? Perhaps the Catholics of Romania can help us form an answer to that question.

For fifty years, Greek Catholics of Romania have remembered seven Romanian bishops for their courage, faith, and personal witness. That’s why they proposed these seven men for beatification by the Church. Ultimately, Pope Francis agreed with them, declaring all of them to be known as martyrs and blesseds in 2019.

The people living in what is now Romania had to fight for control of their land for thousands of years, from the days of the Roman empire, to the time of the Mongol Horde, all the way up to the twentieth century and the Soviet Union’s imposition of a Communist government over their people.

Perhaps the only Romanian name that most Americans would recognize is Nicolae Ceausescu. Ceausescu came to power as the Communist leader of Romania in 1965. Although he was initially popular for making foreign policy decisions independently of the Soviet Union, his popularity didn’t last long. Few Communist leaders during this period were as despised by their own people as was President Ceausescu.

Why was he so hated? After all, Ceausescu was a fervent Communist and follower of Marxist-Leninist ideals, just like the leaders of other Soviet bloc countries. But Ceausescu’s god was Nicolae Ceausescu. To ensure a cultish devotion to his person and his leadership, he instituted mass surveillance of his people through his notorious secret police. To improve his image on the world stage, he decided to ensure that Romania paid off its external debts. This was a worthy goal, but he achieved it only by enforcing severe economic measures that led to food rationing and abysmal living standards for ordinary Romanians. Ceausescu and his family members, however, lived the high life and were given many gratuitous awards. His grandiose schemes for making sweeping improvements to Romania were all about the good of Nicolae Ceausescu, not the good of Romania.

The Romanian Revolution against Ceausescu’s totalitarian government in 1989 was violent and deadly. He and his wife were captured while trying to escape the country, put on trial for economic sabotage and genocide, convicted, and swiftly executed.

The seven Romanian bishops who are honored as blesseds on June 2nd by the Church also died brutal deaths. But these men were true and good shepherds, and through both their lives and their deaths, they taught their people how to respond to the injustice, suffering, and challenges to their faith which were inflicted upon them by Ceausescu and Communism.

The majority of Christians in Romania, then and now, are members of Orthodox Churches (more than 85%), although there are Romanians who are members of the Catholic Church, either as Greek Catholics or Roman Catholics (roughly 5% total). While Communist governments have sometimes tolerated members of Orthodox Churches, seeing those Churches as something they could control, Catholics were viewed as enemies of the Communist state. The feeling is mutual; the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nos. 2422-2425), explains why Communism and the Catholic faith are incompatible due to the former’s understanding of the human person, economic theories, and explicit atheism.

Blessed Iuliu Hossu (1885-1970) was ordained a priest in the Greek Catholic Church, served as a chaplain during World War I, appointed bishop of Gherla in 1917, and made Bishop of Cluj-Gherla in 1930. During the Communist occupation of Romania, all Catholics were ordered to become members of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Iuliu refused to convert to Orthodoxy. For this reason alone, he was arrested and imprisoned for sixteen years before his release in 1964. He died in a hospital after spending several years under house arrest.

Blessed Vasile Aftenie (1899-1950) was an auxiliary bishop in the Greek Catholic Church. When he encountered a large group of Greek Catholic priests who had agreed to the government’s demands and converted to Orthodoxy, he reprimanded them. The Romanian government later had him arrested, imprisoned, and tortured. Despite two years of pain, isolation, and physical mutilation in prison, he remained faithful to the Catholic Church to the end.

Blessed Ioan Balan (1880-1959) was named the bishop of Lugoj of the Greek Catholic Church in 1936. He refused to convert to Orthodoxy and was therefore arrested in 1948. He was confined for the rest of his life in various Romanian prisons, although he was never formally tried or convicted of any crime.

Blessed Valeriu Traian Frențiu (1875-1952) was named the bishop of the eparchy of Oradea Mare in 1922. He was arrested in 1948 for refusing to leave the Greek Catholic Church for Orthodoxy. He was sent to Sighet Prison, a notorious prison for political prisoners, and died there.

Blessed Ioan Suciu (1907-1953) was born in Romania and had studied for the priesthood in Rome before becoming an auxiliary bishop of Oradea in 1940. He too died in Sighet Prison, after being imprisoned elsewhere in Romania because of his decision to remain a Greek Catholic.

Blessed Tit Liviu Chinezu (1904-1955) studied for the priesthood in Rome before his ordination in 1930. He was arrested in 1948 for his refusal to leave the Greek Catholic Church, though never tried for a crime or formally sentenced. While in prison, other detained bishops ordained him as bishop. He was sent to Sighet Prison, where he died of hypothermia.

Blessed Alexandru Rusi (1884-1963) was named the bishop of Maramures in 1931 and was later named the Major Archbishop of Fagaras and Alba Iulia in 1946. The Communists opposed his appointment, arrested him, and held him at various prisons until 1957. They condemned him on bogus charges of “instigation and high treason”. He died while still in prison, not having completed his twenty-five-year sentence.

Although all seven of these bishops spent years in prison, locked away from the world, news of their unjust suffering and great faithfulness leaked out and was known by the Romanian people, as well as by the leaders of the Church in Rome. In 1969, a monsignor from Romania met with Pope Paul VI and begged the pope to do something to encourage the faithful Catholics of Romania, who were suffering greatly under Communism. The pope attempted to name Bishop Iuliu Hossu a cardinal, but when the Romanian government objected, Paul VI simply named him a cardinal in secret. Iuliu apparently never knew of the appointment.

It is not difficult to understand why Romanian Catholics cherished the memories of these martyrs and promoted their cause for beatification to the Church of Rome. Their faithfulness to Christ and His Church inspired the suffering Catholics in Communist Romania to remain faithful for decades.

The man who held the lives of millions of Romanians in his iron fist is now gone, his memory despised. But the loyal Catholic believers of Romania held onto the memories of their valiant, self-sacrificing bishops for decades before they were able to share these stories of heroic faithfulness with the rest of the Church. Perhaps it is not that hard to predict which leaders will stand the test of fifty years’ time: look for the ones whose lives most closely imitate Jesus Christ and who remain faithful to His Bride, the Church, even unto death.