
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160267
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: VATICAN CITY                                LENGTH: Short

VATICAN, ROMANIA RESUME TIES

Completing its official return to Eastern European countries with major Roman Catholic populations, the Vatican on Tuesday announced resumption of diplomatic relations with Romania.

A terse one-paragraph announcement ended a 40-year rupture that began with the triumph of communism in Romania after World War II. Relations will be resumed at full ambassadorial level, the Vatican said, without naming the envoys to be exchanged.

The return of an official Vatican presence in the Eastern bloc has followed quickly on the fall of communism there. The process began last July when relations were restored with Pope John Paul II's native Poland.

So far this year, relations have been resumed with Hungary, which the pope will visit in 1991, and with Czechoslovakia, which he visited last month. Official ties have also been resumed with the Soviet Union, although not yet at ambassadorial level, in the wake of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to the Vatican last December.

- Los Angeles Times

by CNB