Romanian Leader Orders Demolition of Orthodox Cathedral
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BONN — Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu has ordered the demolition of a 330-year-old Orthodox cathedral and church offices in Bucharest to make way for a pedestrian underpass, a Roman Catholic news service said on Thursday.
In a report from Bucharest, the West German Catholic News Agency said the Communist leader has asked Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist to move his church offices to the northern provincial city of Iasi.
The agency’s report, which gave no sources, did not say what Teoctist’s response was nor did it specify when the demolition and construction project would begin.
Ceausescu, an autocratic ruler, is engaged in an ambitious and costly modernization of Bucharest, whose old city center has been largely torn down.
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