The Romanian Greek-Catholic Community is facing a cultural and religious wipe-out – letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The Romanian Greek-Catholic Community is facing with a cultural and religious wipe-out: the Greek-Catholic churches are systematically destroyed by the Orthodox Church representatives, whose actions are supported and accepted by the Romanian authorities, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Association accuses in a letter addressed to Hillary Clinton, the US state secretary.

Romanian Greek-Catholic Association, Inc. is a non-for-profit association registered in the United States of America, aiming to support the Greek-Catholic communities.

Head of the association priest Cristian Terhes argues that "the citizens are harassed and threatened because they declare themselves Greek-Catholic; the rights and freedoms of the Greek-Catholics are systematically infringed, without the State interfering".

The quoted letter draws attention upon the situation of the Geek-Catholic church next to the Merry Cemetery from Sapanta, Maramures (North Romania, Transylvania) and upon the fact that "the Romanian state institutions could not find the time for the last two weeks to enforce a court decision that specifically demands an end to the demolishing and building actions".

"Since the abolition of Communism in 1989, the Romanian authorities haven’t done anything to return the assets confiscated by the communists to their rightful owners", the association claims. The organisation requests the State Department to reintroduce "the situation of violating the human rights and the civil rights in case of the Romanian Greek-Catholic community" on the discussions agenda that the US politicians will have with Romanian officials in the future.