Episcopul Iosif de Camillis şi românii din "părţile ungureşti"
Bishop Iosif de Camillis and the Romanians from the "Hungarian Territories"

Summary/Abstract: Bishop Iosif de Camillis and the Romanians of the "Hungarian Territories". At the end of the 17th century, in the dynamic world of central Europe (due to the political and confessional changes), the appointment of bishop Iosif de Camillis as head of the Greek-Catholic diocese of Mukacevo (Muncaci) aimed at strengthening Catholicism in a vital area for the Empire (Upper Hungary). The Uniate bishop's activity was to make use of a pre-existing advantage: the wish of the Orthodox ecclesiastic elite to solve the crisis economic, social-juridical, institutional) they had been confronted with for a long time. The present study discusses the main activities carried on from the last two decades of the 17th century with the view to organize the Greek-Catholic Church in the areas inhabited by Romanians of the Muncaci diocese (Satu Mare, Bihor, Crasna, Ugocea). In the absence of the sources that could reveal the claims of the local clergy, the "Camillis episode" gives us the unique possibility to accurately reconstruct the Catholic program aiming to carry out the church unification. We hint at various sources, such as: acts of the synods, letters addressed to the Court of Vienna, or to the Hungarian Primate, the bishop's diary, the catechism he drafted, etc. The program is highly significant because, following the negotiation stage - concerning the decisions of the Council of Florence and the rights and privileges of the Uniate clergy -, its elements were meant to institutionally establish the new church and to settle the status of the Greek-Catholic clergy, in accordance to the decisions of the Holy See. The bishop himself initiated this process in the "Hungarian territories". Educated in Rome, where he got acquainted with the aims of the Catholic Reformation, he grounded his efforts to set up the Uniate Church on the requirement to create a new type of priest (obedient, educated, dedicated to pastoral activities, with a privileged social status) and to establish a well-structured and efficient institutional basis.

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