Petru Gherghel (born 28 June 1940) is a Romanian prelate of the Catholic Church, serving as the Bishop of Iași from 1990 to 2019. Born into a Catholic family in Western Moldavia, he identifies as an ethnic Romanian and has carried out public debates with those who see all or most Moldavian Catholics as "Csángós" or Hungarians; he is sometimes polemically depicted as a self-denying Csángó, but rejects the label altogether. His ordination and initial activity took place under the communist regime, when the Church was semi-repressed and the diocese was run by four successive ordinaries. During the regime's national-communist phase, marked by Nicolae Ceaușescu's ascendancy as communist leader, the Holy See was afforded more recognition. From 1978, the Church could appoint apostolic administrators, with Gherghel serving as such, at Iași, down to 1990. His views on the Csángó issue controversially aligned with Ceaușescu's; as a high-ranking clergyman, he was also automatically assigned to the national leadership of the Front of Socialist Unity and Democracy—where he endorsed the official discourse about world peace. Such positions required a degree of cooperation with the authorities, leading him to be criticized by Eduard Ferenț, the more outspokenly anti-communist priest.
Gherghel's promotion to bishop, countersigned by Pope John Paul II, came just months after by the Romanian Revolution of 1989. In the new political climate, Gherghel expressed himself as a monarchist. He remained generally opposed to the Csángó ascendancy throughout the 1990s, though he also presided upon the religious festivals at Cacica, where he welcomed Hungarian worshipers and recited parts of the Catholic mass in Hungarian. As a promoter of ecumenism, he cultivated respectful relations with the Romanian Orthodox Church and the local Jewry. Before his resignation in 2019, he also softened his Romanian nationalism, allowing the mass to be given in Hungarian in various parish churches under his direct supervision.
Early life Gherghel was born on 28 June 1940 in Gherăești, Neamț County. Episcopii Diecezei, at the Diocese of Iași site, 2014Petre Bratu, "Habemus episcopum! — ceremonia consacrării Episcopului Diecezei Romano-Catolice", in Cronica, Vol. XXV, Issue 18, May 1990, p. 2Bogdan-Mihai Mandache, "'Cred că de acum se va putea vorbi de un adevărat ecumenism' — Convorbire cu Msgr. Petru Gherghel, episcop al Diecezei de Iași", in Cronica, Vol. II, Issue 15, April 1990, p. 4 He is the youngest of nine children born to a Catholic peasant family. Catholics of his native area are often described as "Csángós", and regarded as a branch of the larger Hungarian community. Hungarian sources such as historian Gábor VinczeGábor Vincze, "A moldvai csángó-magyarok modernkori történetének áttekintése", in Székelyföld, Vol. VI, Issue 8, August 2002, p. 75 and journalist Szabolcs RostásSzabolcs Rostás, "Megfékeznék a csángók asszimilációját. Állami magyar oktatás és anyanyelvű misézés garantálná a megmaradást. Levélváltás a iasi püspökkel", in Magyar Nemzet, 5 March 2009, p. 10 argue that the bishop is himself Csángó by birth; similarly, Meinolf Arens, fellow of the International Institute for Nationalities Law and Regionalism, sees him as "hav[ing] Moldavian Csángó roots".Meinolf Arens, "Jegyzetek a moldvai csángókmúltjához és jelenlegi helyzetéhez (I.)", in Korunk, p. 80 Gherghel has questioned both the label and its general validity. Following researcher Dumitru Mărtinaș, he has argued that local Catholics have "diverse origins", mainly descending from Romanian Transylvanian migrants to Western Moldavia. Overall, he denies that Csángós form a distinct ethnic group, preferring to view the term as a byword for Romanian Moldavian Catholics, which he regards as largely integrated with their Orthodox brethren.Ferenc Tempu, "Román koncepciók a moldvai csángó-magyarokróla II. ezredfordulón (IV.)", in Moldvai Magyarság, Vol. XVI, Issue 10, October 2006, p. 17
After completing seven grades of school in his native village, Gherghel moved to Iași, where he graduated from a cantors' school in 1959. He embraced this career at the peak of a conflict between the Romanian Catholic Church and the communist regime, during which the Iași Diocese was only granted informal state recognition, under ordinaries. The third one of these was . Also of putative Csángó background, he was secretly consecrated a bishop, but publicly stood for obedience toward the communists. As such, in 1956 he persuaded the authorities into reopening the Roman Catholic Theological Institute of Iași.László Petres, "Benedek Márton, a homályban hagyott 'szent'", in Moldvai Magyarság, Vol. XXVIII, Issue 1, Spring 2018, p. 24 The second phase of Pleșca's mandate coincided with the rise of a reformist communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu. As noted in 2018 by the Csángó historian László Petres, Pleșca managed to placate the new political factors by adhering to their national-communist agenda, resulting in "a very special relationship" between the Diocese and the Romanian Communist Party.
Young Gherghel defied communist orders by befriending Alexandru Todea, a former political prisoner and clandestine bishop of the still-banned Greek Catholic Church. He and Todea met several times, in secrecy, in places such as Vatra Dornei and Iași.Al. Cistelecan, "Egy ember élete, ahogy az volt: Alexandru Todea bíboros", in Provincia, Vol. III, Issues 6–7, 2002, p. 4 Gherghel himself graduated from the Theological Institute, and was ordained to the priesthood in Alba Iulia on 29 June 1965 by Áron Márton, as the local Catholic bishop. He then served at the parish in Barticești until 1967, followed by a period in Rădăuți. From autumn 1970, he taught moral theology at his alma mater, obtaing a full professorship on 1 December, and rising to director in March 1975. These activities ran through the remaining years of Pleșca's mandate (to 1977) and during his short-term replacement as ordinary, Andrei Gherguț (1977–1978).
Administrator By early 1978, Ceaușescu was mending relations with the Holy See, resulting in a "tacit agreement" whereby the Diocese could be granted its own apostolic administrators. On 21 February, Pope Paul VI named Gherghel to that position, with his installation taking place on 4 April. During the following twelve years, a number of churches were built and parishes opened in the diocese, as well as a new seminary building; nearly 150 priests were ordained, with some of them being sent abroad to study. The mandate also generated controversy, since Gherghel's beliefs on the Csángó issue seemingly agreed with Ceaușescu's national-communism. As noted by scholar Sayfo Omar, Gherghel "consistently swept aside every initiative that tried to secure the use of the Hungarian language in the church."Omar, p. 16
As Arens observes, Gherghel continued in the same line as Pleșca, both when it came to the "unprecedented, accelerated church construction" and the "successful Romanization of the deeply religious Csángós"—under the official guidelines, mass could only be delivered in Romanian. The same scholar argues that, within this setting, "the local clergy also functioned as a control apparatus, in many places." Church officials were themselves expected to cooperate with the UM 0544, a special unit of the Securitate which had infiltrated Csángó villages to monitor Hungarian nationalism. A surviving report by one Securitate spy indicates that historian Ion Dumitriu-Snagov, who had upheld the official narrative, was also a colonel in the UM 0544—and also that Gherghel had been made aware of this fact.Árpád Gazda, "Moldvai összefonódások — Interjú Varga Andrea történésszel", in Moldvai Magyarság, Vol. XVI, Issue 6, June 2006, p. 7
On 17 January 1980, Gherghel joined the central committee of the Front of Socialist Unity and Democracy (FDUS), which offered ex-officio membership to state-sanctioned religious leaders."Membrii Comitetului Central al Organizațiilor Democrației și Unității Socialiste", in Scînteia, 18 January 1980, p. 7 The FDUS promotional system became mired in controversy in late 1982, when the anti-communist priest Eduard Ferenț refused to be rubber-stamped as a central committee man. Ferenț was dispatched to a rural posting in Cleja; as Ferenț noted in 2011, Gherghel did nothing to oppose this act of repression.Mirela Corlățan, "Fals monsenior, turnător la Securitate. Complicitate: Mazilirea rectorului, acceptată tacit de episcop și de profesori", in Evenimentul Zilei, 21 March 2011, p. 10
Gherghel was allowed to visit Rome in 1983, to witness the beatification of a national preacher, Jeremiah of Wallachia. The group of pilgrims also included the physician Márton Benedek, who had taken orders without the communist regime's consent, and who was outed as such during the trip. Benedek was therefore persecuted by Securitate agents upon his return, and down to his death in 1986; he was himself beatified in 2011.Vlad Munteanu, "Preotul medic Martin Benedict va fi beatificat de Vatican", in Informația Zilei, 2 October 2011, p. 3 Gherghel, meanwhile, maintained his FDUS position. In May 1986, when Ceaușescu and the Front organized in Bucharest an international theological conference to honor International Year of Peace, Gherghel was a guest speaker. He described the push for world peace as implicit in Christology."'Pace pe pămînt' — A 47-a Conferință teologică interconfesională", in Telegraful Român, Vol. 134, Issues 21–24, June 1986, pp. 1–2
Becoming a bishop Following the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the Romanian Catholic dioceses were again under papal control, and apostolic administrators could be raised to the rank of bishop. Gherghel was promoted in this manner by Pope John Paul II, on 14 March 1990. As he notes, state recognition was delayed, due to "some hesitation" from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. His consecration took place on 1 May at the seminary, and was officiated by Archbishop Angelo Sodano, a representative of the Pope. In an April 1990 interview, the new bishop stated his willingness to work for "true ecumenism" (mainly as a dialogue with the majority Romanian Orthodox), and took pride in noting that Romanian Catholics were patriots—as with Andrei Lupu of Luizi-Călugăra, the first recorded casualty of the Romanian war of independence. He chose as his Latin motto Ut Omnes Unum Sint (John 17: "So that they may all be one"), hinting at spiritual unity. His eccelesiastical coat of arms displays images of Christ and the Holy Virgin alongside the Seminary and Our Lady Queen Cathedral in Iași.