A group of 20 US lawmakers is urging the Romanian government to
return churches seized after World War II, according to a report in the National Catholic Register.
Following Soviet occupation, Romania became a Communist state, seized
Eastern-rite Romanian Catholic churches, and turned them over to the
Romanian Orthodox Church.
The Communist government, eventually
overthrown in 1989, also confiscated many Protestant church buildings.
The lawmakers, led by Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), called upon the US State
Department to “vigorously engage the Romanian government to end the
travesty of justice which it has perpetuated by failing to fully
restitute properties illegally confiscated from religious
denominations.”