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Pope
Francis met with members of the Roma community
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Pope
Francis apologised to the Roma people on Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church's
"discrimination" against them as he wrapped up a visit to Romania.
Making up
around 10 percent of Romania's 20 million people, many Roma are marginalised
and live in poverty and have suffered centuries of discrimination and insults.
"I ask
forgiveness ? in the name of the Church and of the Lord ? and I ask forgiveness
of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated
or looked askance at you," the pope said in a speech to the Roma community
in the central town of Blaj.
"My
heart, however, is heavy. It is weighed down by the many experiences of
discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities.
History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to
such evil," he said.
"Indifference
breeds prejudices and fosters anger and resentment. How many times do we judge
rashly, with words that sting, with attitudes that sow hatred and
division!"
Earlier,
the pontiff beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during
the Communist era.
"The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology," he told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a "Field of Liberty" in Blaj.
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Pope
Francis, seen holding an icon, said the beatified Catholic bishops, victims of
political oppression, were "shepherds, martyrs of faith" whose gifts
to the Romanian
people in the early days of Communist rule were "freedom
and mercy"
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"The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology," he told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a "Field of Liberty" in Blaj.
"These
shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a
precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy,"
added Francis, while praising the "diversity of religious expression"
in mainly Orthodox Romania.
Regime
officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on October 28, 1948,
accusing them of "high treason" after they refused to convert to
Orthodoxy.
The
Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule.
Buried in
secret
The bishops
died of maltreatment, some still in jail, others in confinement in an Orthodox
monastery. They were then buried in secret -- to this day the whereabouts of
four of their graves is unknown.
The bars of
the cells where they were held were symbolically incorporated into the throne
built specially for the papal visit.
The bishops
followed the Eastern Rite Catholic Church which emerged from an Orthodox schism
at the end of the 17th century when the central region of Transylvania was part
of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
While retaining Orthodox practices they recognised Roman Catholic papal authority -- unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. Under a 1948 decree formally abolishing the Eastern Catholic churches, Greco-Catholics were forcibly obliged to return to the Orthodox fold.
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Romanian
faithful in traditional dress turned out in their thousands to attend the
pontiff's
service in Blaj, notably home to thousands of Roma, a long
marginalised community
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While retaining Orthodox practices they recognised Roman Catholic papal authority -- unacceptable for the Communist regime which took power following World War II. Under a 1948 decree formally abolishing the Eastern Catholic churches, Greco-Catholics were forcibly obliged to return to the Orthodox fold.
Under such
stark political repression, most Romanian Catholics -- who numbered more than
1.5 million in 1948, abandoned their faith and their community has shrunk to
around 200,000 today in a country of 20 million, almost nine in 10 of whom
profess Orthodoxy.
The
politics which has seeped through Romania's modern religious history has
poisoned inter-faith relations -- even if the papal visit has softened feelings
to a degree.
"No
matter where we go, to the town hall, to the police or to school, doors get
closed," a 72-year-old Roma, who gave his name as Ion, told AFP.
Roma,
originating from northern India, suffered around five centuries of slavery
before the practice was formally abolished in 1856.
But they
remain a mainly poor and marginalised community -- even if recent years have
seen roads paved and homes getting running water and electricity.
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| A Romanian couple in Blaj hold a Vatican flag as they attend Pope Francis's mass |
Seeking
inclusiveness
Francis's
arrival in Blaj to wind up his visit was part of his attempt at inclusiveness
on his three-day visit to one of what remains Europe's poorest states.
Although
Romania has developed apace since obtaining EU membership in 2007 there remain
some "urban or rural ghettos where nothing has changed," according to
sociologist Gelu Duminica, who heads the anti-discrimination Impreuna
(Together) association.
Duminica
and others in Blaj saw it as no coincidence that Francis, often seen as a
defender of the rights of the most marginalised, chose the Barbu Lautaru
district of Blaj, whose inhabitants are mainly Roma, to launch his appeal for
tolerance and social inclusion.
"The
pope's visit is a message for those who are marginalised, disregarded or not
accepted by others," said Mihai Gherghel, an eastern Catholic priest, who
supervised the construction of the Blaj church where Francis celebrated Sunday
mass.
