Romania

According to the 2002 census, in the eastern European country of Romania the dominant Orthodox Church claims the allegiance of 86.7% of the country's total population of 21.7 million. Other large religious groups are the Roman Catholic Church (4.7%), the Reform Church (3.2%), and the Pentecostal Church (1.5%). The Greek Catholic Church United With Rome represents 1%, Jews 0.1%, Muslims 0.3%, and atheists another 0.1%. The Roman Catholic and Reform churches attract many of the ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania. Like Poland, Romania is a religiously and ethnically homogeneous country and registers significantly higher levels of religiosity than other European countries. Unlike the predominantly Catholic Poland, Romania is predominantly Orthodox.

Historians have discovered proof of the existence of Christianity in Romanian lands beginning in the fourth century. By the Middle Ages, the southern and eastern parts of what is now Romania were predominantly Orthodox, and Slavonic was the official language in both church and state affairs. Greek Catholicism resulted from the conversion by the Jesuits of some Romanian Orthodox faithful in Transylvania in 1698. Many Transylvanian Hungarians and Germans were initially Catholic, but they converted to Protestantism starting in the 16th century. The Orthodox Church was recognized as the dominant church in 1866, became autocephalous in 1885, and was elevated to the rank of an autonomous patriarchate in 1925. Like other eastern European Orthodox kingdoms liberated from Ottoman rule in the 19th century, the nation-state of Romania embraced the concept of symphonia, whereby the church and the state collaborated for the good of the society and the state supported the preservation of an Orthodox Christian culture. Symphonia placed all other religious groups at a great disadvantage.

An antireligious campaign was launched after the country turned communist in 1945. The Greek Catholic Church was dismantled; anticommunist church members were imprisoned; the Concordat with the Catholic Church was revoked; and the state nationalized church property, severely restricted the training of priests, closed down confessional schools and monasteries, ceased religious instruction in public schools, and banned public religious celebrations. A dedicated secret political police department penetrated the rank and file of religious groups and marginalized unreliable clergymen. While initially the Communist Party saw religion as a capitalist remnant expected to wither away as its social basis disappeared, during the 1970s and the 1980s, it forged a special relationship with the dominant Orthodox Church, which agreed to support its policies.

Since the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, the Orthodox Church has reasserted its dominance, remaining the country's most trusted institution. New legislation allowed religious groups to be autonomous from the state and offered protection to religious minorities and non-registered groups, which can worship freely.