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Ioan Ploscaru

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Ioan Ploscaru
Eparch of Lugoj
Church Romanian Greek Catholic Church
Diocese Eparchy of Lugoj
In office 14 March 1990 – 20 November 1995
Predecessor Ioan Bălan
Successor Alexandru Mesian
Previous posts Titular Eparch of Trapezopolis (1948-1990)
Auxiliary Eparch of Lugoj (1948-1990)
Orders
Ordination 17 September 1933
by Valeriu Traian Frențiu[1]
Consecration 30 November 1948
by Gerald O'Hara[1]
Personal details
Born 19 November 1911
Frata, Kolozs County, Kingdom of Hungary, Transleithania, Austria-Hungary
Died 31 July 1998 (aged 86)
Lugoj, Timiș County, Romania

Ioan Ploscaru (19 November 1911 – 31 July 1998) was a Romanian bishop of the Greek-Catholic Church.

Born into a peasant family in Frata commune, Cluj County, he studied in Blaj. He was ordained a priest in 1933 and a bishop in November 1948. The latter ordainment was performed in secret by bishop Gerald O'Hara, shortly after the new Communist regime outlawed the church and arrested his predecessor, Ioan Bălan. Himself arrested in August 1949, Ploscaru spent a number of years in detention, including at the notorious Sighet Prison.

After the collapse of the regime in 1989 and the church's legalization, he was the first Greek-Catholic bishop to officiate at a mass. This took place in January 1990, with the Romanian Orthodox Banat Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu quickly agreeing to restore the Greek-Catholic churches in his province to their former owners. Ploscaru retired in 1996[2] and died two years later in Lugoj.

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 "Archbishop Ioan Ploscaru". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2026-05-04.
  2. Back to citation (in Romanian) Arhiepiscopul Ioan Ploscaru at the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic site; accessed April 25, 2012