"Multiethnic" Christianity” “

Romania is like a “cultural meeting point between the Latin and Slav-Orthodox worlds and an example of the fertile coexistence of different religious confessions in a continuous, if not always easy and immediate, dialogue”. The religious history of Romania is being discussed during the 24th European Week organised by the Paul VI Ambrosian Foundation and the Sacred Heart Catholic University which began on 3 September at Villa Cagnola di Gazzada. “In a Europe preparing to open herself to the east”, it was said during the meeting, “the path followed by the various Romanian Churches, from the origins up to post-communist rebirth, is more pertinent than ever before. The very unity of the country is based on two traditions, Latin and Greek, and represents a model for the future unity of Europe as she commits herself to maintaining her western and eastern components alive and active”. These are some of the topics that emerged from the meeting: Alexandru Nicolescu, professor at the University of Udine, recalled that from the beginning Romanian Christianity was “multiethnic”. “The first written evidence of a Christian presence in Romania is bilingual, Latin and Greek. In the same way, the first martyrs of the Romanian Church came from both the Roman and Greek worlds”. According to Cesare Alzati of the University of Pisa: “Contemplating the religious history of Romania is like contemplating the religious history of Europe as a whole. The Romanian people, Latin by race and language, Slav by culture, political organisation and liturgy, never ceased to be participants in their own tradition, thus creating a formidable living web of religious traditions”. “This web”, Alzati continued, “is the vitality of the European people themselves, a stimulus to rebuild Europe on the same plurality, in the wake of nationalism and totalitarianism.” “Romania has always been – at least since the period following the Carolingian empire – an integral part of Europe and of the Church” explained Serban Turcus, professor of medieval history at the University of Cluj. “In a country such as Romania, with many religious denominations, incidents of intolerance have been virtually non-existent. In Moldavia, Valacchia and Transylvania, Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Calvinists and anti-Trinitarian Unitarians have lived alongside one another for centuries, more inclined to meet than to collide. Romania’s two souls, the western and the eastern, did not prevent the nation from becoming fully conscious of its entry into Europe with the unification of the Church of Transylvania with Rome during the period of the Hapsburg empire. Romania’s active presence on the European scene also continued between the two World Wars after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The image projected by Romania was that of a country integrated with other European nations, both politically and economically”. As Virgil Bercea, of the faculty of Greek Catholic theology at the University of Cluj, recalls, “the isolation of Romania from the rest of Europe came about during the years of communist dictatorship when both the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic Churches were virtually annihilated because they were seen as potential spies for Rome and the West. The first signs of revival, however, were not slow in coming after 1989, and the three great Romanian Churches, the Orthodox, the Catholic and the Protestant immediately resumed dialogue. Today, these three confessions are actively committed to the integration of Romania with Europe. Of all the Churches in the countries of the East, the Romanian Orthodox is one of the most open to dialogue with the Catholic Church. Orthodox Romanians, with the same hopes as Catholics and Protestants, have a deep desire to enter the European Union with all their heritage of tradition and culture. Moreover, Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants are resolved to defend and promote together the ever-living values of Christianity on the great themes of abortion, euthanasia and eugenics. According to information from the recent census carried out in 2002, of the 21.698.181 inhabitants of Romania, 86% are Orthodox Christians, almost 6% are Catholic Christians (of whom only 1% belong to the Greek Catholic Church), 3% are Calvinists and the remaining 5% is divided between eight other confessions, among them “anti-Trinitarian Unitarians”.