Religion in Romania

Romania is a secular state, and it has no state religion. However, an overwhelming majority of the country's citizens are Christian. 86.7% of the country's population identified as Eastern Orthodox in the 2002 census (see also: History of Christianity in Romania). Other Christian denominations include Roman Catholicism (4.7%), Calvinism (3.7%), Pentecostal denominations (1.5%) and the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church (0.9%). Romania also has a small but historically significant Muslim minority, concentrated in Dobrogea, who are mostly of Crimean Tatar and Turkish ethnicity and number 67,500 people. Based on the 2002 census data, there are also approximately 6,000 Jews and 23,105 people who are of no religion or atheist.

Eastern Orthodoxy

Eastern Orthodoxy is the largest religious denomination in Romania, numbering 15,869,975 according to the 2002 census, or 86.7% of the population. The rate of church attendance is, however, significantly lower. According to a September–October 2007 poll, with respect to church attendance there are four categories in Romania (percentages relative to general population): 38% go to church several times a month or more (of which 7% go weekly or more often), 20% go to church on the average monthly, 33% go only one or two times a year, and 7% don't attend church.^[1]

Roman Catholicism

According to the 2002 census, there are 1,028,401 Roman Catholics in Romania, making up 4.7% of the population. The majority of Roman Catholics are of Hungarian ethnicity, even though there are also more than 300,000 ethnic Romanian Catholics, mainly in Transylvania.

Greek Catholicism

According to the 2002 census, there are 191,556 Greek-Catholics in Romania, making up 0.88% of the population.^[3] The majority of Greek-Catholics live in the northern part of Transylvania.

According to the information, valid for the end of 2003, given in the 2005 Annuario Pontificio, the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church then had 737,900 followers, many bishops, some 716 diocesan priests and 347 seminarians of its own rite. The dispute over the figure is included in the United States Department of State report on religious freedom in Romania.^[4] The Romanian Orthodox Church continues to claim many of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church's properties.

Protestantism

According to 2002 census ^[5] Protestants represent 6.5% of total population (1,411,274 persons). Major denominations are Reformed Church in Romania (3.2%),^[6] Pentecostals (1.5%), Baptists (0.6%), Adventists (0.4%), Unitarians (0.3%), Plymouth Brethrens (0.2%) and Lutherans (0.2%).

Islam

Although the number of adherents of Islam is relatively small, Islam enjoys a 700 year tradition in Romania particularly in Northern Dobruja, a region on the Black Sea coast which was part of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries (ca. 1420-1878). According to the 2002 census, 67,566 people, approx. 0.3% of the total population, indicated that their religion was Islam.^[7] 97% of the Romanian Muslims are residents of the two counties forming Northern Dobruja: eighty-five percent live in Constanţa County, and twelve percent in Tulcea County.^[8]

See also

• Religion by country
• Religion in Europe
• History of the Jews in Romania

Notes

References

• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, Religion and Politics in Post-communist Romania, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 0195308530
• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania," in Quo Vadis Eastern Europe? Religion, State, Society and Inter-religious Dialogue after Communism, ed. by Ines A. Murzaku (Bologna, Italy: University of Bologna Press, 2009), pp. 221–235.
• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Politics, National Symbols and the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral," Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 58, no. 7 (November 2006), pp. 1119–1139.
• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Pulpits, Ballots and Party Cards: Religion and Elections in Romania," Religion, State and Society, vol. 33, no 4 (December 2005), pp. 347–366.
• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "The Devil's Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies and Informers," East European Politics and Societies, vol. 19, no. 4 (November 2005), pp. 655–685.
• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religious Education in Romania," Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 38, no. 3 (September 2005), pp. 381–401.
• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "Religion, Politics and Sexuality in Romania," Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 57, no. 2 (March 2005), pp. 291–310.
• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratization", Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 52, no. 8 (December 2000), pp. 1467–1488, republished in East European Perspectives, vol. 3, no. 4 (22 February 2001), available online at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1342524.html, and vol. 3, no. 5 (7 March 2001), available online at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1342525.html.
• Flora, Gavril; and Georgina Szilagyi, Victor Roudometof (April 2005). "Religion and national identity in post-communist Romania". Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 7 (1): 35–55. doi:10.1080/14613190500036917.