The Moraru Family’s answer: ”Faith begins in the interior church of every human being.”
Originally from Craiova and Alba Iulia, Ion and Mihaela Moraru met in Alba Iulia. Ion is a graduate of the University of Timisoara, the Faculty of Automation/Computer Science (1993), while Mihaela is a graduate of the University of Cluj, the Faculty of Economic Sciences (1997). They emigrated to Canada in 1996/1997, following Ion’s brother, Ducu Moraru (who emigrated in 1993). Together they have two children, John Michael (13) and Joseph Alexandru (18). Along with other parishioners, they contributed in the creation of the Toronto Mission (in 2001). This year, the Moraru family celebrates 22 years since their move to the Canadian land.
Father Ionel Maier recommended you as an extremely “normal” Greek-Catholic family. Your normality is both inspiring and an example to follow. What do you think?
(laughing) Yes, we are as normal as it can be; we don’t really stand out in any way.
I also learned from Fr. Ionel that your father was Orthodox, but he switched to the Greek-Catholic faith on intellectual grounds. Can you tell us a little about his conversion?
From my point of view, Orthodox or (Greek-) Catholic, both are very close to the same faith (of course with a fair number of nuances and specificities).
I belong to a mixed family: my father was Orthodox, and my mother Greek-Catholic. My wife, on the other hand, was part of a family where her father was Greek-Catholic, and her mother became Greek-Catholic by marriage. When we were born (during the communist period) the Greek Catholic church was illegal in Romania. Therefore, both myself and my wife were baptized Orthodox.
For my father, his participation in the Greek-Catholic church was not perceived as a conversion but rather a recognition of the church as it should be – one Catholic and apostolic (universal and unique), following the troubled history she had in the communist context. On the other hand, my father witnessed the fruits of faith in the Greek-Catholic church in Alba Iulia, initially, and later in the church in Toronto, Canada, and this experience led him to the maturing feeling of belonging to this church.
My father knew the history of the Orthodox and Greek-Catholic Church in its minute details. He wanted very much to continually improve his knowledge in this regard. At one point, in the early 1990s, looking for certain details regarding the Greek-Catholic past of a church in Alba Iulia, he discovered the tomb of Bishop Athanasius Anghel. Athanasius Anghel was the first Greek-Catholic bishop of Transylvania, the one who founded the Greek-Catholic church by signing the Unification with the Church of Rome in 1698. He died in 1713 and was buried in Alba Iulia in the metropolitan church. Later his tomb was lost because the metropolitan church had been demolished when the construction of the citadel of Alba Carolina began in the 18th century. Thus, my father managed to discover the place where the tomb of Athanasius Anghel had been moved, near the Maieri church, close to the train station in Alba Iulia.
For me, Greek-Catholicism was not a choice but a revelation.
Ion Moraru
Alright, then how did you become a Greek-Catholic?
In my case it was because of the efforts of Sister Maria Ernesta (Mărioara Oancea), a Greek-Catholic nun from before 1947. Sister Ernesta (who is also a distant relative of ours) performed an extraordinary activity to promote the Catholic church and to attract young people to our faith.
You must know that between the ’80s and’ 90s, we did not have a religious education. However, due to the contacts with Sister Ernesta, who was visiting our family in Alba Iulia, we managed to approach some of the essential concepts of Christianity, in general, and of the Catholic confession in particular, such as loving your neighbor, forgiveness of sins and the need for prayer. As a side note, Sister Ernesta always found opportunities to share her missionary messages, although we were living during the communist era and she was followed by Securitate (the Romanian secret service).
After 1990, we began to pray together, as a youth group, in Sister Ernesta’s apartment in Alba Iulia. We prayed the rosary, the Eucharistic adoration, and other forms of prayer, through songs and meditations adopted by youth from the experiences gained at the meetings in Taize. (France).
These meetings have greatly contributed to our formation. My wife and I actually met in this group of friends. From this point of view, we had a conversion. We could attend the liturgy in all 3 churches with the same pleasure (Catholic, Greek-Catholic and Orthodox). Sister Ernesta opened our eyes! Nevertheless, she also left us to our own free will to choose which church we felt we belonged to.
For me, Greek-Catholicism was not a choice but a revelation. I can still remember, it was in the early 1990s and I used to attend the Sunday liturgy in Alba Iulia. The Greek-Catholic church did not have a building at that time, and the divine liturgy was celebrated in the hall of a puppet theater. In those precarious conditions, with the inherent difficulties of finding a place to meet Jesus in the holy Eucharist, I realized: this is the church of God. I felt the call of Jesus in the simplicity of the place and in the richness of the message. To me it was evident that he is alive in the hearts of all those who participated there with me.
Faith begins from the interior church of every human being – the place where you meet God.
Ion Moraru
What does faith mean to you?
Throughout my life, I felt the presence of God on a regular basis, especially during my college years, but also during hardships, and I constantly relied on this help. Faith begins from the interior church of every human being – the place where you meet God. For me, the interior dialogue is the seed of our faith. In all the significant moments, the trials and tribulations of life, without God’s help, we would have not overcome them as well as we did.
How does this manifest itself in everyday life?
When we have difficulties, we feel God comforting us, being close to us, understanding us. I always had the feeling we were carried by God’s hand. God is always with us … in everything. I recognized it when we managed to bring our parents to Canada, and we felt their presence.
I give you a trivial example. Both parents managed to make a confession before passing away. In Mihaela’s case, Father Emil Jude arrived at the hospital where her father was admitted, without knowing that he was there, just before he died. In my case, my father came to the Divine Liturgy in Toronto on a Sunday in November. He went to confession and received communion on this occasion, and on Monday morning he died quietly at home.
For us, these signs are as obvious as possible that God cares about us and our family.
What does church mean to you?
In post-communist Romania, the Greek-Catholic church was of an unbelievable effervescence at first. People were united because they were denigrated by the press. This kept us close. Sister Ernesta (and many others like her) played a key role in revitalizing the church.
Here in Canada, when we tried to set up the Greek-Catholic Church, there were organizational problems. With few resources we managed to have a priest, very dedicated to our small communities. If it was according to our plans, I don’t think I would have done so well, but God’s help came at exact key moments and in an unexpected way.
After the turbulent beginning period, having Sunday liturgies in various locations, at a Ukrainian church, then at a Slovak church, with God’s help we found the stable place in which we function today. Slowly the community grew and more families joined us, mainly because they saw the fruits of our faith in the Sunday celebration and in the active participation of the parishioners in prayers during the liturgy.
Today, our church is made up of many elderly people (those of whom supported the formation of the church) and very few young people. Unfortunately, we observe a fading away of our youth from the church once they reach adolescence. And the phenomenon is not only in our church, but it is a predominant one in the Catholic church at large.
How do you see the Romanian Greek-Catholic community in Canada?
This is a complex problem. The community was formed with difficulties. There are many people with great will. Once everyone got in shape, a stagnation occurred. People come willingly, they are kind, and we understand each other very well. But I notice that we remained about the same people, we were not able to grow so much, and this makes us somewhat limited.
In time, other people (predominantly Orthodox) succeeded, which is a good thing, but not many, the growth is not exponential.
What can we do in the future? A powerful youth engagement. The future is in the second and third generation. We need to have a plan to involve them, otherwise, we will live increasingly dispersed.
How do you try to educate / inspire your own family, your own children in your faith, given the world we live in?
We have two boys. I do not know what we could have done more as parents in terms of their faith. But even so, their faith is cautious … they don’t know what to rely on.
And there is a barrier (maybe even more). The first barrier is language. Although they understand Romanian, they are not as connected as we are during liturgy, for example. It is often a chore for them. Honestly, they feel better inside the Catholic church where English is spoken.
Another barrier is a cultural one. We live in a very competitive society and there is a discrepancy between what they learn in school and what we experience in church. We try to explain to them that not everything can be known only on a scientific level, that there are several forms of knowledge.
It hurts, because they are very active, but we do not see them as immersed in the Christian life. Young people need a revelation that brings them closer to God. I didn’t have to tell my parents to go to church. Many times I went on my own initiative. I was going and seeking. I wanted to read the Bible by myself to make my own mind.
Unfortunately, there is reluctance in them. I can’t explain what they think. We try to pray for them to realize that it is not enough to believe in God, you must belong to God.
…it is not enough to believe in God, you must belong to God.
Ion Moraru
9. Can you share an event that solidified your faith?
The Taize youth meetings in France. There were large prayer groups with young people from all over the world. The fact that I saw so many youth praying together, sharing things, talking about the Bible together, as if it were the most natural thing possible, it was a “switch” for me. I was also in Medjugorje (in Bosnia and Herzegovina), and I experienced the same thing – besides prayer, being so many, it makes you elevate.
The relationship with Sister Ernesta and these experiences have helped to strengthen my faith.
How do you think we could promote our faith to the generations to come?
Our liturgy is very beautiful for those who are initiated, for those who know. In contrast, to our youth, even if it is in English, they do not connect to it, they perceive it as archaic. They don’t understand why we have to do this.
I noticed that they respond better to a priest who tells jokes, who is not very formal, but colloquial.
I also think it is our responsibility to try to talk to them, to communicate our faith with them. The best thing is to talk in the family. For example, when we drive home from liturgy we talk about the gospel.
However, we do not know if that is enough. Half-a-day per week we try to cover, but the rest of the time young people are much very exposed to the culture and thinking here.
On the other hand, the lack of young people in the church affects them. It seems to them that this is not their place. If there were more young people, it would be better, they would encourage each other.
Have you met a family that has managed to inspire you in this regard?
Mihaela: My cousin (from Alba Iulia), who converted to Greek-Catholicism. I see that she applies to her 3 children’s life a daily routine that we would want to implement in our family. Her children have a deeper religious knowledge, are more involved in the Christian life, in the church.
The children from Romania have a more developed spiritual life, they prayed more in the family. They managed to create a routine with which they are comfortable with.
Finally, who do you think is the role of the church in this landscape? An educator of what God is. The role of the church is to open our eyes to God’s plan. Let it be based on faith, but above all focused on God’s plan. Once you come to this understanding, it is easy to practice our faith.
interview by Raul Botha