Alexandru Todea

Alexandru Cardinal Todea (born June 5, 1912 in Marostelek , Transylvania , Austria-Hungary ; † May 22, 2002 in Târgu Mureş , Romania ) was Archbishop of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia for the Romanian Greek Catholic Church and cardinal of the Roman Church .

Life

Alexandru Todea studied in Rome trays Catholic theology and philosophy . On March 25, 1939, he received the sacrament of ordination and, after further studies, became a pastor in his home diocese in 1940. In the same year the persecution of the Catholic Church of the Byzantine-Romanian rite began. Alexandru Todea was briefly arrested several times, but managed to escape.

In 1950 he received secret episcopal ordination as titular bishop of Caesaropolis through Joseph Schubert . In 1951 he was captured by the political police of the communist regime and sentenced to life forced labor in 1952 . In 1964 he was pardoned as part of an amnesty for political prisoners and placed under house arrest. At a secret meeting of the Greek Catholic Bishops' Conference in 1986, Alexandru Todea was elected chairman. House arrest was lifted in 1989 on the initiative of the Bishops' Conference.

Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Făgăraş and Alba Iulia for the Romanian Rite Catholics in 1990 . In 1991 he accepted him as a cardinal priest with the titular church of Sant'Atanasio a Via Tiburtina in the college of cardinals . In 1992 Alexandru Todea suffered a stroke and from then on had to sit in a wheelchair . In 1994 he resigned from his management duties in the archdiocese for health reasons. He died on May 22, 2002 in Târgu Mureș and was buried in Blaj Cathedral.

Web links

• Todea, Alexandru. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed August 26, 2016.
• Entry on Alexandru Todea on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved August 26, 2016.

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexandru Nicolescu	Archbishop of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia 1990–1994	Lucian Mureșan