The Economy of the Transylvanian Roman Catholic Status Between the World Wars

Abstract

The purpose of the study. To examine how the 20th century’s political changes affected the Roman Catholic Church structurally, and it’s specific institution, the Roman Catholic Status by the agrarian reforms which were part of the modernization process and nation-building in Greater Romania; and more importantly in Transylvania, the area of the four Roman Catholic dioceses of Nagyárad, Gyulafehérvár, Temesvár and Szatmár, and what alternatives were created for economical surviving. Applied methods. Literature review including the history of World War I and the consequences of the upcoming treaties of Versailles. We involved sources from church literature, agrarian estates records and data from researches of the Status archives from Transylvania. The research framework is the history of the Roman Catholic Status. We introduced four ecclesiastical counties whose economically changes influenced the administration of several institutions and funds belonging to the Status. We made a structural analysis examining the new economic system of the Roman Catholic Status situated in the middle of the modernization development of Greater Romania. Outcomes. Due to the annexation of Transylvania to Romania, the Roman Catholic Church went from a privileged position to a marginal position, since the majority of the Romanian population was Orthodox Christian. Many problems of the process of modernization and nationbuilding in Greater Romania were felt by all sections of the population, but it was the ethnic minorities and their institutions - especially the churches - which were to be integrated into the new nation-state that were most affected. The four Roman Catholic dioceses Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia), Nagyvárad (Oradea), Temesvár (Timișoara) and Szatmár (Satu Mare)) expropriated 277,513 acres of a total of 290,570 acres of land, which represented 98% of the land holdings. The agrarian reform of 1919-1920 brought major changes in the management of the Status funds and the estates belonging to them.