Religion. – Christianity must have been introduced in Romania by the first Roman colonists, among whom they could not miss – as in the rest of the Empire in the century. II – followers of the religion of Christ; in any case, there is no sure news about it. It is certain instead that, at the time of Constantine the Great, there must have been numerous Christians especially in Dobruja, and that in Tomi (Constance) there was an episcopal see, of which the names of nine holders who lived between the IV-VI centuries are handed down.. The rite of these early Christians, given their western origin, was certainly Latin or Roman. The invasions of the following centuries gradually altered the Western character of the young Romanian church, and this happened especially thanks to the Bulgarian rulers who increasingly spread the Byzantine rite, which acquired an undisputed dominance from the century. IX onwards. From that time on, Romanian Christianity was dependent on the patriarchate of Byzantium, also following it in the schism from Rome (v.constantinople: The patriarchate of; orthodox, church). For Romania religion, please check thereligionfaqs.com.
Today’s Romanian Catholics are largely descended from Hungarian and Polish Catholics who immigrated to Romania from the 10th century. XIII onwards, whose spiritual care was entrusted by Rome especially to Franciscan and Dominican missionaries. During the period of the Protestant Reformation many Romanian Catholics joined it; Catholic propaganda resumed with new fervor in the century. XVII, the ecclesiastical organization gradually developed especially in the nineteenth century, when it reached its present state.
More than two thirds of the population belong to the National Orthodox Church, which broke away from the patriarchate of Constantinople and constituted an autocephalous church in 1865, recognized in 1888. It was reorganized in 1925 when the already existing metropolitans of Sibiu and Cernăuţi were subjected to the patriarchate of Bucharest. under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (1864 and 1873 respectively). It includes, in addition to the aforementioned, the metropolitan see of Iaşi and Chişinău and Blaj and the bishoprics of Rămnicul-Vălcea, Galao, Costanza, Curtea-de-Argeş, Buzău, Roman, Ismail, Cetatea-Albă, Arad, Caransebeş, Oradea-Mare, Cluj, Hotin, Huşi.
Catholics depend on the hierarchies of the Greek, Latin and Armenian rites. They were reorganized in June 1930 following the concordat of 7 July 1929. The hierarchy of the Greek rite (“of the Romanians”) constitutes the ecclesiastical province of Făgăras and Alba-Iulia, with suffragans Cluj-Gherla (formerly Gherla, Armenopoli, Szamos Ujvar, 1853; changed name, 1930), Oradea-Mare (1777), Lugoj (1853), Maramureş (June 1930). The Latin hierarchy constitutes the ecclesiastical province of Bucharest (1883; metropolitan 1930), with suffragans Jaşi (1884), Satu-Mare (1804) and Oradea-Mare (1777) united in 1930, Timişoara (1930), Transylvania (formerly Edely, XII century; residence in Alba-Iulia). For the Armenians there is an apostolic administrator, residing in Gherla.
The followers of the various Reformed denominations belong to the Augustan and Swiss confessional church; there are also Unitarians. These Protestants (in a broad sense) are found almost all in Transylvania, partly between the Saxon element, partly between the Hungarian element (see below: History). The Saxon Lutherans established themselves as a national church with their own bishop and consistory in Sibiu; the Magyar Lutherans have a superintendent in Arad. The Swiss Reformed have two bishops, in Cluj and Oradea-Mare. The Unitarians have a bishop in Cluj.
According to the 1930 census there were 18,025,037 followers of the various cults, divided as follows:
The 1923 constitution guarantees religious freedom and equality of cults; but the Orthodox Church is called “dominant”. Its clergy, like the Greek-rite Catholic clergy, are paid by the state. Those of other cults are subsidized by the state. Romania undertook with the Treaty of Paris of 9 December 1919 to guarantee the rights of ethnic and religious minorities.
Education and school. – Romania has kind of like the elementary school only, compulsory and free for children of both sexes belonging to any social class. For ethnic minorities, courses are held in the respective language, with the addition of a certain number of hours devoted to the study of Romanian. Currently 16,300 elementary schools educate a school population of 2,605,000 pupils. Secondary education, divided into a lower course of 3 classes and a higher course of 4, includes 204 high schools including boys and girls: classics, with Latin, Greek and a modern language; modern, with only Latin and two modern languages (French, German, Italian and English, of which the last three are chosen by the student) and scientific, with only modern languages. There are also 75 isolated gymnasiums, 17 seminaries, 97 normal schools, 109 commercial schools, 79 vocational schools, 69 lower schools of agriculture, 179 schools of arts and crafts. Higher education is given in the 4 universities of Iaţi, Bucharest, Cluj and Cernăuş, in the Law Academy of Oradea-Mare (Transylvania), in the Faculty of Theology of Chişinău (Bessarabia), in the 2 Higher Academies of Commerce in Bucharest and of Cluj, in the two higher agricultural academies of Bucharest and Cluj and in the two polytechnic schools of Bucharest and Timişoara.
The university is accessed through a diploma de bacalaureat (baccalaureate) corresponding in all to the Italian high school diploma with exams taken before ministerial appointed commissions, chaired by a university professor or a member of the inspectorate, and in some previously established cities. The commissions may also include professors from the respective high schools. The preparatory year in the individual faculties (added following the reduction of the secondary course to seven classes), was recently abolished with the restoration of the eighth class.
