Targu Jiu

The situation regarding the freedom of religion in Romania

 

If in a dictatorial regime you must adapt yourself as well as you can in order not to sacrifice your identity, in democracy the basic processes are to learn to assume and to tolerate willfully.

In the last 60 years the Romanian citizens had to pass the two situations. Thus, after 1945 Romania entered for 45 years in a period of totalitarian supremacy of a communist ideology characterized by the attempt of crushing the human conscience, of controlling all the manifestations including the ones of faith. “The new man”, the communist, had to be an atheist.

The constitutions and the law of the communist regime theoretically stated the full freedom of conscience, the freedom of religion, but the reality was clearly another. By the Decree no. 177/1948 the problems of faith were “solved”. The religious education was diminished and controlled, studying religion being eliminated from school, the religious manifestations were controlled, some of them needed to be approved by the laic authorities. What was more, the Greek-Catholic religion was forbidden, its goods – churches, buildings, lands – were confiscated or given to the Romanian Orthodox Church.

The years of “the communist nightmare” meant continuous actions against the freedom of faith and conscience, made human traumas, destroyed destinies, degradation of tens of cultural places etc.

In 1989 the elimination of the communist dictatorship permitted the coming back to the free manifestation of the conscience, of the citizen’s faith. The religious actors could freely have contacts with the social actors.

The legislative ground of the freedom of conscience and faith was made by the Constitution in December 1991, which, in chapter 2 entitled “The fundamental rights and liberties”, stated:

-Article 29 – (1) – “The freedom of thought and opinion, as well as the freedom of religious faith under no circumstances can be restricted. No one can be obliged to adopt an opinion or to adhere to a religious faith against his belief.”

- (2) – “The freedom of conscience is guaranteed; it must be manifested reciprocally and in a tolerant way.”

In parallel, the Religion Education was seen as a school subject and there were re-organized the theological colleges and seminaries with all confessions, the monarchism re-appeared, many places of cult were re-built.

In the same time, Romania’s adhering to the E.U. needed a punctual legislative regulation for the religious freedom in our country, starting from the E.U.’s motto “Unity in diversity”. This fact was regulated by the Law 86/2006 regarding the religious freedom and the general regime of cults which also contains the following:

Article 1- (1) - “The Romanian state respects and guarantees the fundamental right to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion for any persons in Romania.

-                           (2) – No one can be stopped or obliged to adopt an opinion or to adhere to a religious faith against his belief and can’t be subjected to any discrimination, pursued or made in an inferior situation for his faith, affiliation or non-affiliation to a group, religious association or cult.

 

Article 2 – (1) – “The religious freedom regards any person’s rights to have or to adapt a religion, to manifest it individually or collectively, in public or in particular, by practices and rituals specific to the cult, by religious education inclusive.”

Article 9 – (1) - “In Romania there is not a state religion; the state is neutral regarding any religious faith”.

Article 49 – (1) – “At the date of this present law in Romania 18 recognized cults are in function.”

According to the census in 2002, the Romanian citizens declared their affiliation to the following cults: 86,8% - orthodox people, 4,5% - Roman-Catholic people, 3,7% - Reformed people, 1,5% - Pentecostal people, 0,9% Greek-Catholic people, 0,6% - Baptist people etc.

The present problems concerning the manifestations of the freedom of faith and religion in Romania lie in a specific rigidity from the Romanian Orthodox Church facing the other cults; divergences and even local confrontations starting from some orthodox communities’ refuse to give back the religious buildings to the Greek-Catholic believers; rare anti-Jewish manifestations.

We can conclude that in today’s democratic Romania the freedom of conscience and faith can be freely manifested, irrespective of the Romanian citizens’ faith or ethnic group.

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