The Romanian Orthodox Church and democratisation: twenty years later

Abstract

This article starts by presenting the legacy of the communist past, as relating to the use of nationalism by the Romanian Orthodox Church and its reluctance to confront its collaboration with the communist regime. Its second part discusses religious education in public schools, arguably the religious denominations' most important achievement after 1989, before, in the third part, examining the different models of church–state relations embraced by the Romanian Orthodox Church during the reigns of its two post-communist patriarchs, Patriarch Teoctist (Arǎpaşu) and Patriarch Daniel (Ciobotea). It argues that although marred by its communist past for almost the first decade and a half after 1989, the church, like the country itself, has transformed in the process of accession to the European Union. In particular, it argues that the search for a model of church–state relations has evolved in the view of the country's dominant church, from one of establishment to one of partnership.

Keywords:

• Romania
• church–state relations
• nationalism
• transitional justice
• collaboration
• communism
• democratisation
• Orthodoxy
• Romanian Orthodox Church

Notes

¹Latawski, ‘The Problem of Definition’, 1–11.

²Rady, ‘Nationalism and Nationality in Romania’, 131.

³Stan and Turcescu, Religion and Politics, 42, and Gillet, Religion et nationalisme.

⁴ The Romanian Constitution of 1923.

⁵Scarfe, ‘The Romanian Orthodox Church’, 208–31.

⁶Stan and Zaharia, ‘Romania’, 1096–109.

⁷Stan and Turcescu, Religion and Politics, 51–2.

⁸Ibid., 52–6. Also Stan and Turcescu, ‘Church–State Conflict in Moldova’, 443–65.

⁹For details, see Stan and Turcescu, Religion and Politics, 56–63, and Stan and Turcescu, ‘Politics, National Symbols’, 1119–39.

¹⁰Stan, Transitional Justice, 7.

¹¹Romania's handicap is demonstrated by Stan, Transitional Justice, 128–51.

¹²Law on File Access 187 of December 1999, Monitorul Oficial no. 603, December 9, 1999.

¹³After 1989, the ROC encouraged historical revisionism and even appointed an ‘official’ historical commission to write the history of the ROC under communism and thus disprove allegations raised by independent historians that the church did nothing but collaborate for most of the communist times. For an authoritative study documenting the ROC's communist-era collaboration, see Vasile, Biserica Ortodoxǎ Românǎ, and Tismǎneanu, Dobrincu and Vasile, Comisia Prezidenţialǎ. The ROC has defended the work of George Enache, Radu Preda, Radu Carp and a number of other historians who argued that, contrary to what the archival documents attest and the Romanian people lived through, the church, its leaders and its priests have openly collaborated with the communist regime only to hide their own dissidence and opposition. The instances of dissidence are few, but they are seen as far out-weighing those of collaboration. See, for example, Enache, Ortodoxie şi Putere Politicǎ.

¹⁴Stan and Turcescu, Religion and Politics, 72.

¹⁵Ibid., 72–3.

¹⁶Stan and Turcescu, Religie şi Politicǎ, 162.

¹⁷CNSAS Decision no. 2410/28, August 2007.

¹⁸Flueras, ‘Preoţii informatori’.

¹⁹Emergency Ordinance no. 1 of 2008.

²⁰‘BOR va respecta legea’.

²¹Stan and Turcescu, Religion and Politics, 151.

²²Ibid., 153.

²³Law on Education 84/1995.

²⁴Emergency Ordinance no. 36 of July 10, 1997.

²⁵Mungiu-Pippidi, ‘The Ruler and the Patriarch’.

²⁶Law on Religious Freedom no. 489 of December 28, 2006.

²⁹Monsma and Soper, Challenge of Pluralism, 169.

³⁰Personal interview with Daniel Ciobotea, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Archbishop of Iaşi, conducted by Lucian Turcescu on June 11, 2004, Iaşi, Romania.

²⁷Ibid.

²⁸For the German model of partnership between church and state, see Monsma and Soper, Challenge of Pluralism, 169–212.

³¹Protocol de Cooperare în Domeniul Incluziunii Sociale.

³²Ibid.

³³‘Lansarea Campaniei Naţionale’.

³⁴Protocol de Cooperare privind Parteneriatul Asistenţǎ Medicalǎ şi Spiritualǎ.

³⁵Ibid., 1.

³⁶Ibid.

³⁷Providenţa Medical Centre.

³⁸Email from Fr Dan Sandu of Iaşi to Lucian Turcescu, November 11, 2009.