09800
September 18, 2009

Romanian church welcomes law keeping religion as school subject

by Jonathan Luxmoore
Ecumenical News International

WARSAW — The Romanian Orthodox Church has welcomed a government decision to maintain religion as a core school subject in the former communist country.

“The Romanian nation is one of Europe’s most religious,” the Rev. Constantin Stoica, spokesperson for the church’s Bucharest patriarchate, told Ecumenical News International. “For the last two decades, each confession has had the right to organize religious classes.”

Stoica added, “Parents, teachers and church members have all appreciated the benefits of religion in public schools, and most children also want it as a normal part of the curriculum.”

The priest was speaking as Romanian parliamentarians debated a proposed education law, which passed a new stage on Sept. 15. The law will require schools to provide religious teaching for all primary and high school pupils. Stoica said the new provision reflected the will of most Romanians, and of all faiths.

“This present system has worked well under education ministry supervision,” the church spokesperson told ENI. “When 99 percent of Romanians say they adhere to a faith, and only a tiny fraction disclaim any religious belief, it is clear they will want to have religion in their schools.”

Romania restored religious education in 1990 shortly after the collapse of communist rule in country, and by agreement with the Orthodox church. Under the 1991 constitution, religious education became a requirement for all schools “in accordance with the specific requirements of each religious cult.”

Although subsequent laws gave parents the right to withdraw their children from classes, Romania’s Humanist Association and some human rights groups complained that children were being pressured to attend Orthodox classes.

The new education law, drafted by a presidential commission, originally was to have given secondary school pupils an alternative to religious classes, as well as permitting non-Orthodox religious symbols in classrooms, and allowing over-16s to opt out without parental consent.

The exceptions were withdrawn after an open letter to President Traian Basescu on Aug. 19 from the country’s Orthodox Patriarch Daniel, who said religious education had always been at the heart of Romania’s education system.

“In the majority of European Union states, with the exception of France, religion is a school discipline under different names; the EU states uphold an education system which values religion’s educational potential,” Patriarch Daniel said. “The study of religion promotes rather than impedes the spiritual and moral values that lie at the heart of European and national culture, and which a pupil needs.”

Crosses and icons are displayed in most government-run schools in Romania, where 86 percent of the country’s 23 million people are Orthodox Christians. Roman Catholics comprise 6 percent and Protestants 3 percent of the population. The country is also home to small Muslim and Jewish minorities, while only 0.1 percent of Romanians say they have no religious affiliation.

Editor’s note: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has one mission worker in Romania — the Rev. Mary Ferris, who works with a number of agencies that minister with orphans and children at risk in the country. For information about and letters from PC(USA) mission workers around the world, visit the Mission Connection Web site. — Jerry L. Van Marter