Bucharest, Latin Archbishopric of
In Romanian Bucuresti, capital of Romania (999,658 inhabitants in the 1941 census). It was the capital of the principality of Wallachia in 1642, after Curtea de Arges and Târgoviste. The city, which may date back to 1400, owes its name, according to legend, to a shepherd whose name is borne by the oldest church — Biserica lui Bucur.
When Prince John Cuza I, elected simultaneously to the thrones of Moldavia and Wallachia, chose it as the official residence for himself and his government (1859), the city became the capital of the united principalities and, subsequently, of the kingdom of Romania. During the long reign of Carol I of Hohenzollern (1866–1914), it adapted increasingly to its new role, becoming the political and cultural center of all Romanians, and in this city the political and spiritual preparation of modern Romania matured. Bucharest, which as the capital of the state had become the seat of the patriarch of the dissident Romanian national Church, was, by Pope Leo XIII, with a brief of 27 April 1883, erected as the residential see of the Latin-rite Catholic diocese, immediately subject to the Holy See.
This Latin diocese gathered the legacy of an ancient organization for Catholics residing in the Romanian principalities. From 1610 to 1715 the Latin archbishops and bishops of Sardica (Sofia) were apostolic administrators of the Two Wallachias (Oltenia–Muntenia) and of Moldavia. During this period the oldest Latin parish of Bucharest, S. Maria delle Grazie, known as the Barattizia, was built (1624–32) by the Italian Conventual Pietro Paolo Bruni. From 1728 to 1792 the same care fell to the bishops of Nicopolis (Bulgaria), a Latin bishopric founded in 1648. Then until 1863 the same bishops resided in Bucharest. To this period belongs the Bulgarian parish of Cioplea, 5 km from Bucharest.
The last bishop of that period, the Italian Passionist Msgr. Ignazio Paoli (1870–85), also became the first prelate of the present period in 1883, namely Latin archbishop of Bucharest, then without suffragans. Thus he was able to complete the construction of the cathedral of S. Giuseppe, which he himself had begun in 1873. Of his successors, the most important was the Benedictine Msgr. Raymund Netzhammer (1905–25), who died in 1945 and retired after the First World War, distinguished for his scientific and literary activity. During the tenure of the present archbishop, Msgr. Alexandru Cisar, a Romanian citizen, the new residence and the seminary were built. On 5 June 1930 the dioceses of Iași, Alba Iulia, Oradea-Mare and Timișoara or Temesvar were made suffragans of Bucharest. Until 1940 the faithful of these dioceses and especially those of the archdiocese were predominantly foreigners, among them Italians, who built the church of the Most Holy Redeemer. There were in Bucharest secondary schools run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the “Dames anglaises,” the Assumptionists, etc. The Sisters of Charity run a hospital. The situation has profoundly changed following the persecution unleashed in 1948 (v. ROMANIA).