120 PRIESTS IMPRISONED IN RUMANIA

By REV. JOSEPH I. SULLIVAN ROME
An attack on the Pope by Patriarch Justinian Marina of the Rumanian Orthodox Church, and the imprisonment of at least 120 Greek Catholic priests in the city of Cluj are recent developinents in the war on the Catholic Church in Rumania.
News of them has been released here by the information service of the Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church (SICO).
The Patriarch's attack on the Pontiff was contained in a Christmas message which was broadcast by the Rumanian radio and given wide publicity in the Communist-controlled Press. Observance of the feast of Christmas itself was forbidden by Government decree.
Of the 120 priests imprisoned in Cluj, according to S1CO, 93 were judged by a military tribunal and 28 by a civil court. There has been no word on the nature of the charges, the information service says.
An unknown number of priests who refused to pass into schism are detained in a schismatic monastery at Moldavia. Among them is the Rev. Giulio Ratiu, Dean of Timisoara, a graduate of the Lateran Seminary in Rome and a well-known preacher.
According to Sico, the embarrassed Red authorities closed the Latin Rite church in Blaj when Byzantine Rite Catholics flocked to it after their cathedral had been handed over to the schismatic (Orthodox) Church.
The former Greek Catholic cathedral. at one time crowded for services, now stands practically deserted.