Küldetés és cselekvési környezet. A romániai jezsuiták a 20. században

Abstract

Following World War I Romania became a country having the widest and most diverse ethnic, cultural and denominational features in the region. Th e denominational distribution of the peoples living here mostly covered the various ethnic groups, the communities defi ned by their language and religion belonged to diff erent patterns of economic, social and cultural structures. It was in this context where the community of the Jesuits, crossing ethnic and denominational boundaries, was organised. Th eir coming into existence was promoted by geopolitical and missionary considerations of the Holy See and its expectations that the Greek Orthodox Romanians might convert in the long run. Introducing the activities of the (Greek Catholic) Romanian and the (Roman Catholic) Hungarian and Polish members of the order off ers a picture that refl ects almost every problematic aspect of 20th-century Romania and within it, that of the situation of Transylvania. While presenting this story the study highlights the features characterizing the persecution of the Church by the communists in Romania, and related to this, the main features of the strategies, persecution and underground (catacomb) operation of the Jesuits.