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In this study the author presents the steps it went through, which are: Theological Institute (1924-1925), with three years of study instruction; b. Theological Academy (1925-1948), with four years of study instruction, without having the right to grant the academic degree in Theology and c. Theological Institute of University Rank (1948-1952), with four years of study preparation and having the right to grant the academic degree in Theology; during the spring of 1952, the Romanian communist regime abusively dissolved the Theological Institute of University Orthodox Degree of Cluj, although at that time, due to its professorate, it was a prestigious Superior Theological School of our country. After the Revolution of December 1989, at Pr. Prof. Dr. Alexandru Moraru's initiative (from the Orthodox Theological Seminary of Cluj-Napoca), to which adhered Pr. Prof. Dr. Valer Vel, Pr. Prof. Drd. Vasile Stanciu and Pr. Prof. Drd. Stelian Tofana, in the spring of 1990, the Romanian Patriarchate, in compliance with the Address no. 766 from 16th of March of 1990, as well as the Ministry of Education, in compliance with the Address no. 1748 from the 30th of March of 1990, approved the reestablishment of the University Theological Institute of Cluj-Napoca, which became in 1992 the Faculty of Theology of the "Babes-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca. During the two decades of activity, the Faculty can be proud of the exceptional teaching staffs, who are Ph. Ds., who published in Romania and abroad, who are members in Associations and Societies here and in other parts of the world. During the twenty years` activity, some graduates of the Faculty became bishops of the Romanian Orthodox Church, university or seminary teaching staff, Religion teachers, important social assistants, specialists in restoring old church art and many priests who honor their mission; all of them serve the ancient Church and our nation with dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Orthodox Church in Romania cellebrates this year 125 years of autocephaly, that is one and a quarter of a century of total independence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Mother-Church of the majority of local Orthodoxies in Balcans and Eastern Europe. It is well known that the relation between "mother" and her "daugthers" was, most of the times, a tense one, especially after the fall of Byzantium under the Turks. Taking advantage of the essential nationalism of the modernity, the local Orthodox Churches gradually unyoked themselves of the bonds with a center lacking more and more in resources and, politically speaking, totally unrepresentative. What was natural according to the national emancipation turned into something profoundly problematic from the ecclesiological point of view, because the equilibrium between unity and diversity was deeply altered. The most illustrative example is the Orthodox diaspora, "organized" strictly according to ethnical criteria, preserving the connection with the Mother-Church, but being in open contradiction with the canonic norms of the Ecumenical Councils. Moreover, even the relations between the neighbouring Orthodox Churches, as those between Romania and the Republic of Moldova or those between Russia and Ukraine, will be articulated according to the filial pattern, already compromised, the Romanian communities being claimed by two "mothers", one of origin and the other of historical conjucture. One example of the difficulty degree of this type of pastoration in modernity is given by the recent appeal of the Patriarchate in Bucharest to the Romanians from diaspora, calling them to rejoin the Mother-Church, as well as by the reactions of some theologians belonging to the Othodoxy of French language and culture. The present study analyzes, from a social-theological perspective, such dilemmas which, in fact, cover a deficit of understanding not only the Tradition, but also the modernity as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Orthodox Church during communism era has two histories: one traced by those in power, and one that has been recently revealed through documents discovered and examined by historians. This paper analyzes the situation of the Romanian Orthodox Church immediately after the atheistic communist regime had been installed in Romania, using references taken both from official documents dating during the period of The Patriarch Justinian (The Social Apostolate), and from the archives of the Securitate (The Romanian Secret Services), documents issued by the Department for religions, by the party or taken from the confessional archives. It discusses a series of attitudes and facts that have been interpreted either as acts of abdication from the prophetical mission of the Church or as attempts to survive. The paper's objective is to show that the Patriarch Justinian used "a double discourse" to deal with the challenges of the world he was living in, but still, the Church had a missionary strategy that can generate, at least partially, a model of Christian confession in the context of a secularized society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]