5.C.1.6

Targu Jiu

 

 

The freedom of conscience and the freedom of religion in the national documents

 

          By the freedom of conscience and the freedom of religion one can firstly understand the right of each citizen of having a religious or philosophical conception, of not being forced to take or withdraw one of his conceptions, to freely express, but within the limits of legality, his principles or beliefs.

          During the historic evolution the problems of freedom of conscience have made many controversies, ideational disputes, personal or ethnic dramas sometimes solved in bloody conflicts.

          At the same time as the process of historical modernization, as the expression of the ideas about the rights and the human liberties, the problems concerning the freedom of conscience and religion found constitutional and legislative solutions.

At the middle of the 19^th century the Romanian National State was created and in 1866 the first Romanian Constitution founded its modern organization. It asserted the rights and the civic freedom, including, by the articles 5 and 21, the freedom of conscience and of religion.  At the same time a situation of discrimination was created by the article 7 of the Constitution which stated that the Romanian citizenship was admitted only to the inhabitants who declared to be of Christian religion. The specification excluded the inhabitants of the Jewish religion. Fortunately, the discriminating situation was rectified by the Romanian Parliament which, in 1878, decided the removal of the article 7 from the Constitution.

          In 1923 a new Romanian Constitution came into effect and specified in the articles 5, 7 and 22 the freedom of religion and of conscience for all the citizens of Romania.

          Unfortunately, the democratic evolution of the Romanian state was interrupted for an important period, the end of the Second World War provoking the introduction of the communist dictatorship in Romania. After taking the power the communists controlled all the aspects of the society, including the human rights. On the other hand the propaganda and the official documents proclaimed the recognition and the guaranteeing of all the rights and liberties. Thus, in April 1948 the Constitution specified in the article 27 “the freedom of conscience and of religion are guaranteed by the state. The religious cults are free to organize themselves and may function freely if the ritual and the practice are against the Constitution and the good manners”. The same thing was stated in the article 30 of the Constitution in 1965:”the freedom of conscience is guaranteed; everybody is free to share or not a religious belief”.

          But the constitutional specifications were contradicted by the Order 177 on the 4^th August 1948 which strictly referred to the possibility of expressing the Romanians’ freedom of conscience.. Thus, the 1^st article guaranteed the freedom of conscience and of religion , but the article 14 stated that the organization, the status and the leadership had to be approved by the state. In the article 49 the religious education was excluded from schools and the priests were controlled by the state. In the same year, by a new law, the violation of freedom was clearly proved, the faith and the Greek-Catholic church being forbidden and their goods confiscated. The priests and the partisans, who had expressed against the decision, were persecuted, sent to prison or to the working camps.

The actions of limitation of the conscience and faith went on, the aim of the communist dictatorship being the formation of “the new man”, with communist ideas and against religion. Their actions became more and more different: not anybody could become a priest, the communist members were forbidden to attend the religious service, the pupils were “stuffed” with ideas against the church, the churches were ruined or demolished.

Fortunately, in December 1989 the communist dictatorship was removed, Romania coming back to democracy. In December 1991 a new Constitution came to effect and the article 29 stated: ”the freedom of religion can’t be restricted. Nobody can be constrained to adopt an opinion or to adhere to a new religion against his will. The freedom of conscience is guaranteed; it must express in the spirit of tolerance and mutual respect.”

By the law 489 in 2006 all of the constitutional specifications are confirmed, the Romanian state re-affirming its democracy. At the same time, by the adhering to the European Union, by accepting all the national and international regulations regarding the human rights, the Romanian citizens became European citizens, too. They are sure that the right to a free conscience, to a choice of the religious values is a personal decision.

 

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