Ungheni, Mureş
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ungheni | |
 |
|
| Coordinates: | |
|---|---|
| Country |  Romania |
| County | Mureş County |
| Status | Town |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Ioan Covrig (PSD) |
| Population (2002) | |
| - Total | 6,554 |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
Ungheni (Romanian: Ungheni; Hungarian: Nyárádtő; German: Nyaradfluß) is a town in Mureş County, in central Romania. It was known until the 1960s as Niraşteu.
6 villages are administratively part of the town:
- Cerghid
- Cerghizel
- Moreşti
- Recea
- Şăuşa
- Vidrasău
The town is situated 11 km from the county capital Târgu Mureş and is the location of the Târgu Mureş International Airport.
[edit] Demographics
The town has a population of 6,554. The ethnic breakdown is as follow:
- Romanians: 5,241 (79.97%)
- Roma: 710 (10.83%)
- Hungarians: 599 (9.14%)
- Others: 4 (0.06%)
[edit] Churches
The oldest church in the village was built by the greek-catholic believers between 1858-1864. In 1948, once the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church was banned by the communist regime, this church – along with all the properties of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church – has been given to the Romanian Orthodox Church.
After the anti-communist revolution from 1989, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church has been officially recognized by the Romanian State and she started to claim the churches back. Until today, May of 2008, the Romanian Orthodox Church refuses to give the properties back to the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, in some cases preferring to demolish them instead of giving them back to the owners that they’ve been stolen from.
The same thing happened with the old greek-catholic church from Ungheni. In 1997 the Romanian Orthodox Church started to build a new orthodox church around the greek-catholic one, even if they didn’t have any permits for that.
Despite of numerous complaints, report, memorandums or protests sent to numerous romanian and international organizations or world wide media by the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, the illegal construction work continued. On May 8th, 2008, without any permits or authorizations, the Romanian Orthodox Church decided to proceed with demolishing the old greek-catholic church in order to continue the work to the new church.
Into a public letter, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church protested against the lack of respect for the law, the Christian patrimony and values of another Church as manifested by the Romanian Orthodox Church in this case. The letter continued: “At the same time we cannot understand how this case can help to facilitate the dialogue between Christian brothers and the ecumenical opening that is the goal of all Christian Churches, following from the mission given to them by Jesus that "all should be one" (John 17, 21). ”
For pictures from this illegal act, please visit: http://www.greco-catolica.org/a342-Biserica-Ortodoxa-Romana-a-inceput-demolarea-bisericii-greco-catolice-din-Ungheni-Mures.aspx
|
|||||||
