Concerning the comments made in mass-media during the last few days on the decisions of the Diocesan Assemblies of some of the eparchies from Transylvania to return to the canonical jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Transylvania, the Romanian Patriarchate provides the following explanations:

The decisions of the respective Diocesan Assemblies do not represent the disintegration or the breaking up of the Metropolis of Cluj, Alba, Crișana, and Maramureș, as wrongly affirmed in mass-media, but are designed to balance the territorial jurisdiction of the two Orthodox Metropolises of Transylvania.

In 2005, the decision to establish the Metropolis of Cluj was taken by the Holy Synod in a hurry, without previously consulting the clergy and faithful of the eparchies designed to jurisdictionally depend on the new Metropolis.

The present intention to establish a territorial balance of the two Metropolises is based on the common decision of the Metropolitan Synods of the Metropolis of Transylvania and of the Metropolis of Cluj, Alba, Crișana and Maramureș met in common working session at Sâmbăta de Sus Monastery, county of Brașov, on 16 December 2011, followed by the consultation of the clergy and lay members of the Diocesan Assemblies of the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia and of the Diocese of Oradea, at the request of His Eminence Metropolitan Andrei of Cluj. The Diocesan Assembly of the Diocese of Deva and Hunedoara joined the two Diocesan Assemblies willing to return to the Metropolis of Transylvania, having received the approval of the Metropolitan Synod of the Metropolis of Banat in this regard.

Therefore, the changing of the canonical jurisdiction of the two Metropolises represent the desire of the hierarchs, clergy and faithful of the respective eparchies which the Holy Synod must take into account when analysing the proposal included on the agenda of its working session of 16 – 17 February 2012.

From an ecclesiastic point of view, the two Metropolises have the same importance because, on one hand the Metropolis of Cluj is seated in Cluj-Napoca, the most important city of Transylvania, from a numeric, economic and cultural point of view, where the most prestigious University in this region of the country operates, and, on the other hand, the Metropolis of Transylvania, of the great Transylvanian hierarchs defenders of the national dignity preserves its historical importance of the mother metropolis where from the Metropolis of Cluj has been detached in 2005. In any case, the changes of territorial jurisdiction and setting up of new dioceses must be discussed and accepted first by the Diocesan Assemblies and by the Metropolitan Synods in the respective area and then presented to the Holy Synod for approval.

Therefore, the Romanian Patriarchate appreciates at the same time both Metropolises and urges the hierarchs, priests, lay people and journalists from Transylvania not to alert the people in an alarming and unjustified way now, when the Romanian society is already agitated enough, but to co-operate practically, in the spirit of brotherhood and unity, at pastoral-missionary, social and cultural levels, for the common welfare of the Romanian Orthodox faithful of Transylvania.