Hungarian minority ethnic group Csángós in Romania: Finally Hungarian mass in the church! – PHOTOS

The parish Church in Romanian village Bákó (Bacău) was filled up with Csángó people (Hungarian ethnic minority in Transylvania) after the Jászvásár diocese allowed to hold a Hungarian-speaking mass after almost 30 years. Since the change of the communist system, the Hungarian ethnic group, ‘Csángó’ people, were not allowed to go to Hungarian masses, only to Romanian ones.

At the end of January 2019, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jászvásár (Iași) allowed to hold monthly Hungarian-speaking masses on Sundays, reported origo.hu. Their church is near the Main Square of Bákó, a 144,000-citizen city in Romania with only a couple of hundreds of Hungarian and Csango population. Since the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the Jászvásár Csangos have always been refused to hold a separate Hungarian mass in the Jászvásár area. Finally, however, they can be excited and proud because, for the first time, a mass only for Csangos took place. The last time that the diocese allowed to hold Hungarian masses here regularly was in 1884.

Csangos came to Bákó from 6-8 different villages, wearing traditional folk costumes.

Priest János Ciobanu emphasised that the believers should live an exemplary life, even after these 30 years of fighting for one single permission of the Hungarian-language masses. Tinka Nyisztor, the leader responsible for religious relationships at the Iași Csango-Hungarian Association, noted that they do not give up on allowing to hold Hungarian masses regularly in the Csango villages.

Nyisztor Tinka also said that they consider Hungarian mass in Bákó especially important before Pope Francis’s arrival in June to Csíksomlyó.