On January 1950, Unirea (The Union) first saw the light of day in Cleveland, Ohio. It was “a monthly review”, with articles mostly in Romanian, published by the Association of Romanian Catholics of America and lead by Father Mircea M. Toderich (parish priest at St. Helena Romanian Greek-Catholic Church), as editor. Unirea’s aim was to “Serve the Truth”, to be a voice of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church in America and around the world, in the context of a dissolved and underground Church back in Communist Romania, with no rights, no properties, and no Bishops or clerics – most of whom were imprisoned.
This year, we will celebrate this 70-year anniversary by embarking on a daring project – digitizing the entire physical Unirea archive and making it available on www.unirea.org, step by step, year by year. It is an ambitious endeavor, since the archive contains close to 600 issues, spanning over seven decades, telling the (his)story and development of our Church in North America, the daily lives of her faithful, and how God was always there with them on this life-changing journey.
Unfortunately, the archive is also incomplete. There are still missing Unirea issues that we haven’t been able to find. If you have or discover missing issues, please contact our Chancery (330-493-9355) or e-mail unirea@rcdcanton.org. We would love to have a complete Unirea archive available for the current and future generations of Greek-Catholics both in North America and around the globe.
As always, we invite you to continue supporting the Unirea/Canton magazine by suggesting parish stories, proposing articles, sharing the magazine and its online articles, donating or in other creative, God-inspired ways.
Thank you from the heart and may God bless you abundantly!
The Unirea/Canton Team