Religion in Romania

Religion in Romania (2011 census)

  Romanian Orthodox (85.9%)

  Protestantism (5.6%)

  Catholicism (5.3%)

  Other religions (1.8%)

  No religion (1.4%)

Geographical distribution of denominations

Romania is a secular state, and it has no state religion. However, an overwhelming majority of the country's citizens are Christian. 85,9% of the country's population identified as Eastern Orthodox in the 2011 census (see also: History of Christianity in Romania). Other Christian denominations include Roman Catholicism (4.6%), Calvinism (3.15%), Pentecostal denominations (1.9%) and the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church (0.84%). 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

Romanian Orthodox Church organization

Main article: Romanian Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodoxy in Romania (2002)

Eastern Orthodoxy is the largest religious denomination in Romania, numbering 16,367,267 according to the 2011 census, or 85.9% 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.

Roman Catholicism

Main article: Roman Catholicism in Romania

Roman Catholicism in Romania (2002 census)

According to the 2011 census, there are 869,246 Roman Catholics in Romania, making up 4.6% of the population. The majority of Roman Catholics are of Hungarian ethnicity, even though there are also approximately 300,000 Catholics living mainly in the eastern region of Romania called Moldova, who are originally Csángó Hungarians rated as ethnic Romanians, as in many cases they identify themselves simply as Catholics instead of Csángó, Hungarian or Romanian.

Greek Catholicism

Greek-Catholic presence, according to the 2002 census

Main article: Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic

According to the 2002 census, there are 191,556 Greek-Catholics in Romania, making up 0.88% of the population. 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. The Romanian Orthodox Church continues to claim many of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church's properties.

Protestantism

Protestantism in Romania (2002 census)

According to 2002 census Protestants represent 6.5% of the total population (1,411,274 persons). Major denominations are Reformed Church in Romania (3.2%), Pentecostals (1.5%), Baptists (0.6%), Adventists (0.4%), Unitarians (0.3%), Plymouth Brethren (0.2%) and Lutherans (0.2%). The majority of Calvinists (Reformed Church), Unitarians and Baptists have their services in Hungarian language.

Islam

Main article: Islam in Romania

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. 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.

Paganism

Neopagan groups have emerged in Romania over the latest decade, virtually all of them being ethno-pagan as in the other countries of Eastern Europe, although still small in comparison to other movements such as Ősmagyar Vallás in Hungary and Rodnovery in the Slavic countries.

The reconstructed ethnic religion of the Romanians is called Zalmoxianism and is based on Dacian and Thracian mythological sources, with prominence given to the figure of god Zalmoxis. One of the most prominent Zalmoxian groups is the Societatea Gebeleizis or Society of Gebeleizis.

Statistics

31% of Romanians placed "Belief" among maximum 4 answers to the question "Among the following values, which one is most important in relation to your idea of happiness?". It is the highest number, followed by Turkey with 19% and Cyprus with 17%. The mean in "Europe 27" was 9%. There is evidence of some discrepancies between various statistics and polls. For instance, in 2011 49% of Bucharesters declared that they only go to church on social occasions (weddings, Easter etc.) or not at all, a figure that contrasts national census data, according to which 98.4% are believers.

See also

• Religion by country
• Religion in Europe
• Religious persecution in Communist Romania

References

• Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, Religion and Politics in Post-communist Romania, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 0-19-530853-0
• 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.