Religious Diversity in Romania
What do the terms MINORITIES and MINORITY RELIGION mean exactly? When checking the “Cambridge Dictionary” we find the following definition: MINORITIES - “Any small group in society that is different from the rest because of their race, religion and political beliefs or, a person who belongs to such a group.”
while, MINORITY RELIGION is- “A religion held by a minority of the population of a country or region”.
Religious Diversity in Romania • Romania has no official or national religion. • But, Romania is one of the most religious countries in the European Union and the majority of the country's citizens are Christian (about 92%). • The Romanian State officially recognizes 18 religions. • The majority of the population belongs to the Romanian Orthodox Church – 81% • Roman Catholic Church – 4.3 % • Protestant Church – 4.1 % • Greek-Catholic Church – 2.6 %
• Romania also has a small but historically significant Muslim minority - around 44,000 people. • There are also approximately 3,500 Jews. • Around 21,000 Atheists. • About 19,000 people not identifying with any religion. • It is clear that the Orthodox church is by far the largest, followed by a roughly equal number of Catholic and Reformed believers. There are also smaller groups of other protestant (mainly Unitarian) and Adventist/Pentecostal.
Orthodox Catholic Reformed Unitarian | Other protestant Other religion | Atheist Adventist | Pentecostal
We can see that the country’s religious diversity is the highest in the central region (Transylvania), greatly correlated with the settlements of the ethnic minorities of the country, while the other regions are significantly more homogeneous. https://blog.csaladen.es/szekelyfold%20vallas/map2-en-wrapper.html
https://blog.csaladen.es/szekelyfold%20vallas/map2-en-wrapper.html
Followers of the same religion tend to live in population blocks, close to each other – also observed in the case of large cities, which are mostly all orthodox. Indeed, the Catholics tend to be in majority in Harghita county (central yellow region with a majority Hungarian population) and in some areas of Western Moldavia (yellow clusters in the top right). The reformed followers live in majority in the counties of Covasna, while the Unitarians are the majority in the Western part of Harghita county, Mureș and Bihor.
The religious diversity of the country is therefore the highest in the central part of Romania (a region also called Székelyland by inhabitants), where at least 4 major religions coexist. A comparative diversity can also be observed in the Western part of the country, along the Hungarian border, again due to the presence of ethnic minorities. If we look carefully, we can observe that in Transylvania there is a reddish-violet band extending from the Ukrainian border on the North all the way to the Serbian border in the Southwest, indicating the presence of pentecostal and adventist believers.
https://blog.csaladen.es/szekelyfold%20vallas/all-en-wrapper.html
http://www.pravmir.com/pew-romania-is-now-most-religious-country-ineurope/ A research made by Pew Research Centre in 2018 says that, Romania tops the list as the most religious nation in Europe, based on a series of four factors: the importance people ascribe to religion in their lives regular religious practice prayer life certainty of belief. In Romania, 64 percent of the population say they believe in God with absolute certainty 50 percent say religion is very important in their lives 50 percent attend services at least monthly 44 percent say they pray daily. Based on these figures, Pew said that 55 percent of Romanians could be considered “highly religious.”
Religious Education (RE) in Schools https://www.rri.ro/en_gb/controversies_around_religious_education_in_rom anian_schools-14386
• Parents may withdraw their children from religious education classes. Those who chose to do so were generally people who belonged to a different religion or who disagreed with how the subject was taught. • Religious education is part of the compulsory subjects. What made people regard it as optional is the fact that children are allowed not to attend the classes if they belong to a different denomination. In such cases, they may attend other classes specific to their religion, where this is possible. The curriculum is specific to each denomination, there is a special curriculum for the Orthodox children, another for Catholics and so on. All these curricula are approved by the Education Ministry. If parents want their children not to study religion at all, they are free to do so, because the education law is in line with the Constitution, which guarantees the freedom of religious beliefs. • Religious education classes should no longer be scheduled in between other classes, but at the start or at the end of the school day. Children who do not take these classes would be able to come later or leave earlier from school, and the school would no longer be responsible for their supervision.
Our school has a number of 566 students and 3 Religious Education teachers (one Orthodox, one Reformed and one Roman Catholic). Each class has a R.E. class / week. Students’ parents have to sign a paper, at the beginning of the school year through which they agree/ disagree their children to attend or not the class. But we do have students who belong to other religious minorities as well. They are free to choose if they attend or not the R.E. Class together with their classmates, or they may also bring a paper from their pastor (priest) proving they attended R.E classes at their house of prayer.
In Satu Mare town, there are about 40 churches and houses of prayer. The Ortodox Church in Satu Mare
The Roman - Catholic Church in Satu Mare
The Reformed Church in Satu Mare
The Importance of Religious Tolerance Religious toleration and respect is when people may freely think or practice their religions and beliefs. Everybody has a contribution in educating the young generations in this sense – parents, teachers, friends etc. Romania’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion and include provisions for the protection of minority religious groups.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.� Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This presentation has been prepared with the contribution of the students: Jenifer Monica Mak (XIA), Maria Pașca (XIA), Iulian Cizmar (XIIA) and Samuel Paștiu (XA) under the guidance and coordination of their teachers Liana Daniela Șimon (school headmaster) and Olivia Pop (project coordinator and English Teacher.) This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This e-book reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.