Bucharest, United Vicariate of

BUCHAREST, UNITED VICARIATE OF. - After the union with Rome that took place in 1700 in Transylvania, the united Romanians had to be represented in B., where their influence made itself felt in cultural institutions, such as the College of St. Sava. From as early as 1814 the Latin apostolic administrator requested a priest of the Eastern rite from the united bishop of Blaj. One of his successors, the future Transylvanian bishop Radu, began the construction of a Romanian-united parish, which had to be built far from the street. The parish was entrusted from 1903 to 1907 to a Latin priest. Having later become a protopapate or archdeaconate of B. then Catholics of the Romanian rite, it was in 1941 elevated to a vicariate and entrusted to a former protopope invested with the episcopal dignity with jurisdiction over all the territories of the united metropolis of Fagaras-Blaj situated outside Transylvania, that is, Wallachia, Bucovina, Moldavia and Dobruja. The persecution unleashed by the government in 1948 struck especially the Catholics of the Eastern rite. Msgr. Aftenie, vicar of B., was arrested (v. ROMANIA).

For the dissident Romanian patriarchate v. ROMANIA, Federico Tsililcz