Some Aspects of the Integration of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alba Iulia in the Romanian Ecclesial Structures in the Interwar Period

Abstract

In this paper we focus our attention on the changes that took place after the First World War in the life of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alba Iulia led by Bishop Gusztáv Károly Mailáth. This diocese was the only new diocese in Romania to retain all the historical territory it had previously held in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; all the others having been folded after the Great War. The specific character of the Roman Catholic Church in Transylvania was the ethnic factor, so the main problem became how to integrate the eparchy among the Romanian ecclesiastical administrative units while preserving its religious and ethnic characteristics. We are witnessing the beginning of a "diplomatic game" between the Romanian Government, the Holy See and Bishop Mailáth, and in this context the stake was the preservation of confessional and ethnic identity in a new political framework. The culmination of the integration process was the signing of the Concordat in 1927, but the road to the completion of the inter-state document contains many interesting facts that help us understand the formation of the identity issue.