Alexandru Todea

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

Life

Alexandru Todea studied in Rome, the subjects Catholic theology and philosophy. He received on 25 March 1939, the sacrament of Holy Orders and, after further studies in 1940 pastor in his home diocese. In the same year began the persecution of the Catholic Church of the Byzantine- Romanian rite. Alexandru Todea was arrested several times for a short time, but he managed to escape.

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

Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Fagaras and 1990 Alba Iulia for the Catholics of the Romanian rite, 1991, he took it as a cardinal priest with the titular church Sant'Atanasio a Via Tiburtina to the College of Cardinals. 1992 Alexandru Todea suffered a stroke and now had to sit in a wheelchair. In 1994, he put down due to illness, his management duties. He died on 22 May 2002 in Târgu Mureş and was buried in the Cathedral of Blaj.