An Ounce of Faith Stops Mountains from Moving
June - 2007
    �Hell no this church wont go�, asserts the remaining Catholic community at Rosie Montana where gold has been found in its hills and investors want to blow it out.

�We are a poor people sitting on a pot of gold� says the parish priest.

    There are no flinging stones in this modern day David and Goliath battle of an impoverished community of dairy farmers and out-of-work miners with an unwavering faith to their church and community versus the gigantic Gabriel Resources Ltd, a Toronto based company, seeking to buy up the Transylvanian village. The company�s strength lays in its numbers, namely the 1000 new jobs it promises to bring to this rundown area plus 2.5 billion pumped into the Romanian economy.
    �The Gold Company is very clever.� Says Father Lukacs. �It�s interesting to see how they work. Their employees drive up in new pick-up trucks and pretty sports cars. They are showing �we have the money � we have the power. You would be smart to join us�.�
    For the people that stand against the Gabriel�s project, the fight is not about protecting the gold. �We are not anti-mining,� says Stephanie Roth from the Alburnus Maior community organization fighting the company�s takeover. The people of Rosia Montana were raised off the mines. They want the mines re-opened, and often reflect on those better days when the drills could be heard rumbling through the valley. They point out the illustrious casino in the center of town that now stands as a crumbling ruin. What concerns this community is how Gabriel Resources plans to go about it and the validity of their many big promises.
     �They say they are going to preserve the churches but how after blowing up the mountain,� questions Fr. Lukacs, pointing to the massive Carnic Hill looming large in the church�s backyard. Carnic is the first of the four hills the company wants to remove. �They will say whatever they have to say. Their goal is to open the mines.�
   What has most people up in arms is that after crushing the rock a highly toxic cyanide solution will be added to separate the gold and silver from the ore. Gabriel Resources claims the cyanide will be reduced to safe levels before being discharged into a specially built dam in the valley. In addition, it pledges to invest 70 million to repair the altered landscape and clean up the mess left by past mining ventures that has resulted in heavy metal content in the area�s water supply, visible in the streams rusty-red color � and which has given Rosia Montana � Red mountain - its name.
   
    The opponents claim it�s an environmental time bomb that will rage havoc to the ecology.

    �Knowing what the Rosia Montana Project entails we firmly declare that it represents a serious threat and if realized would cause disastrous consequences for the environment, not only for Rosia Montana but the entire region,� declares the church leaders in a statement� �We believe that there exist no guarantees that would eliminate the threat posed by the mining project; particularly not the pretentious and extremely costly measures formulated by the mining company on environmental protection and respectively; final rehabilitation of the environment.�
   Romanian Catholics are less trustful these days of corporate executives and their promises since last year when the controversial office building began going up immediately alongside the St Joseph�s Cathedral in Bucharest. What was initially proposed as a ten-story building was upgraded without their knowledge into a twenty level Babel. The tower continues rising floor by floor even though experts in the field have continually warned that the construction will likely lead to a total collapse of the 120 year old Cathedral.
    St Joseph�s Cathedral is perhaps best remembered for the mass held by Pope John Paul II during his historical 1990 visit. It was the first Pontifical visit to a predominantly Orthodox country. A plaque commemorating that momentous day stands by the entrance
    The Catholic community of Rosia Montana, now down to half its size since the project organizers began buying up houses, doesn�t stand alone in this fight, but has aligned itself with each of the areas five major churches which all refute Gabriel�s plans. Though Romania is primarily an Orthodox nation with a 90% Romanian population, Rosie Montana village remains a diverse blend of religions and ethnic groups. �Here it is like your California during the gold rush,� explains Fr. Lukacs. �Wherever gold is found people come and from all over. They came to get rich.�
   It was the gold that first put Rosia Montana on the map. The town�s first reference comes from a wax coated tablet found inside an ancient Roman mine referring to the area as Alburnus Maior (Major Settlement) dated 131 AD. Since then the mining has never let up � only the methods have changed. In the middle aged the Romanian princes put the Gypsy slaves to sift the rivers for gold. Remnants of that community still reside along the riverbank. The Austro-Hungarian conquest of Transylvania during the 18th century led to the building of the area�s first Catholic Church to support its Catholic mining community. The original wooden church was replaced in 1866 by St. Ladislaus stone church with its towering steeple that today rivals the massive pines growing along the hill.
    It used to be so beautiful here before the gold company came,� laments Sanda Lungu. �Gold came and spoiled everything. The gold company says they will be here only a few years, remove our hills and then what? This will be a poisoned wasteland. If they leave us in peace we can make tourism business here � and that�s forever.�
    It has been seven exhausting years for this formerly peaceful community since the Gold Company began buying up their homes. Only about half the community remains. Still the battle goes on. Gabriel expects to start blowing in 2009 - while the opposition believes a new bill being debated in the Romanian senate banning the use of cyanide in mining will put an end to the controversial project. �Meanwhile tension inside the community continue to fester. Everyone has an opinion � even the walls � over windows and doors hang the blue �Property of Rosia Montana Gold Corporation� signs while next door the resistance paste their own �don�t tread on me� yellow markers declaring, �this property is NOT for sale�.
    It has created a lot of friction here, laments Fr Lukacs. It has pitted children against parents, neighbor against neighbor, Catholic against Catholic. �On Sunday we try not to speak about it. We try to remain together for at least this one day.�
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