Haven't we seen this before?
The Romanian Catholic Church has set February 11 as a day of strict fasting and prayer, as the Eastern-rite Church confronts a crisis in Romania.
Since the fall of that country's Communist regime, the Romanian Catholic Church has sought the return of parish properties that were confiscated during the Stalin era and turned over to Romanian Orthodox control. The Romanian Catholic Church, which endured fierce persecution under Communism, survived underground and returned to vigorous public life after the repressive regime led by Nicolae Ceausescu finally fell in 1989.
Still most of the confiscated church property remained under Orthodox control, and in many instances Eastern-rite Catholics have been forced to worship in schools and other public buildings, or even outdoors, rather than in the churches built by their forefathers. In a country where Orthodox believers form a clear majority, the Romanian government has been reluctant to press for restoration of Catholic properties. Disputes over the legal ownership of churches have caused considerable conflict between the two Eastern churches.
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=60286For a little background, from the Orthodox side:
The issue of the Concordate with the Holy See
Although considered "a modern law, inspired by the historical, spiritual and denominational realities of Romania and founded on the international legislative norms, the law overlooked the legitimate requests of the ROC. This is the reason why the ROC had its reservations."19The main cause was the Concordate signed by the Romanian State with the Holy See on May 10, 1927, and voted by the Parliament on May 23, 1929, assigning the majority Church a position inferior to the minority Catholic Cult.
http://www.jsri.ro/old/html%20version/index/no_3/ioan_vasile_leb-articol.htmBtw, the King of Romanian, Ferdinand, was not Orthodox but a communicant of the Vatican, and the oath of loyalty for the clergy were to him, not Romania. The concoradant was first a secret agreement, and caused wide protests when revealed.
As a result of the concordant, the Vatican's holdings were exempt from land reform, and inherited crown lands and assets assigned to "Roman Catholic status" under the Hapsburgs.
When I was in Romania in 1992, I saw ads all over for the "Catechismul Bisericii Catolice" all over the place. Shortly before, JP II had said that "if the Romanians were really Romans, they would be Roman Catholic" (no recognition of the fact, that while the Romans were in Dacia, ancient Romania, the mass at Rome was in Greek). When I went to the cathedral of Bucharest, plenty were to be had, although the masses I recall were in Hungarian. This, when the English version was unavailable (that would be 5 more years), though the Vatican has far, far more Anglophones than Romanophones, and only a year after it had come out. What was that all about?
