The Catholic bishops have refused to recognize the supremacy of the state over church affairs as expressed in the General Regulations for Religious Cults of 1948, and consequently the state has not granted the church legal recognition as a religious denomination. Between 1948 and 1967 the government tried to force the church into submission by systematically weakening its position. Uncooperative clergy were either imprisoned or otherwise prevented from exercising their clerical and administrative duties; all church schools, hospitals, and charitable institutions were taken over by the government, and all other church assets were confiscated. All but two monasteries and three convents were disbanded, and even these were not permitted to accept new novices. In addition, the organization of the church was reduced from six to two dioceses, Alba-Iulia and Bucharest. Since the church has not been receiving a state subsidy and has been forbidden to seek contributions, most clergy have been supporting themselves by working at lay jobs. Church buildings have been deteriorating because of lack of maintenance, and many travelers have commented on the marked difference in appearance between the decaying Catholic churches and the well-maintained Orthodox churches.

As part of a general political liberalization in 1967 the arch-bishop of Alba-Iulia, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Romania, and other clergy were released from imprisonment. The action marked the reopening of contacts between the Roman Catholic Church and the Romanian government in an effort to reach a satisfactory agreement that would normalize the position of the church in the country. Additional government effort to reach an accommodation with the church has been demonstrated by the appropriation of funds for the restoration of the historic cathedral of Alba-Iulia. Other denominations had been receiving regular funds for the maintenance and restoration of religious buildings of historic or artistic significance, but the Roman Catholic Church had been denied such funds until 1967. In 1972 contacts between Romania and the Holy See, which had begun in 1967, were continuing. Several meetings had taken place between the Romanian Orthodox patriarch, Justinian, and Cardinal Koenig, who heads the Vatican secretariat for nonbelievers. No agreement legalizing the position of the Roman Catholic Church in Romania has been reached, however.

The government promoted the creation of the Catholic Church of Romania, which was formed in 1951. It is administratively independent of the pope and recognizes the supremacy of the state over church affairs. Legal justification for the move was found in a statute passed in Transylvania in the seventeenth century that placed the conduct of Catholic church affairs in the hands of clergy and laymen directly subordinate to the pope in order to preserve the church from engulfment by the Reformation. In early 1972 the Catholic Church of Romania was headed by a council composed of both lay and clerical members. It recognized the pope as supreme authority on matters of faith, morals, and dogma but rejected any organizational connection with the Holy See.

PROTESTANT CHURCHES

Protestantism is closely identified with the Hungarian and German minorities of Transylvania. Although the churches themselves have refrained from any political activity on behalf of the minorities, their ethnic composition has made them politically significant at times. The Protestant population, estimated at about 1.2 million in 1950, was divided into Calvinist, Lutheran, Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, Evangelical, and Pentecostal churches.

The largest Protestant denomination is the Reformed (Calvinist) Church, with a membership estimated at 780,000 in 1950. The membership of this church is almost entirely Hungarian, and its center is at Cluj, a Calvinist stronghold since the Reformation. Most of the Hungarian aristocracy in Transylvania adopted Calvinism during the Reformation, a period when the Roman Catholic Church was weak in that region. This weakness of the Roman Catholic Church and the political and economic independence of the Transylvanian nobles prevented an effective counterreformation and allowed Protestantism to remain strong in Transylvania while the rest of Hungary was Roman Catholic.

Next in size are the Lutherans, with an estimated membership of 250,000 in 1950. Lutheranism is represented by the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, headed by a bishop at Sibiu, and the Evangelical Synodal Presbyteral Church of the Augsburg Confession, headed by a bishop in Cluj. Membership of both churches is predominantly German. Lutheranism was adopted by the Transylvanian Saxons at the same time that Calvinism was adopted by the Hungarians. In 1938 there were 400,000 Lutherans in Romania; their number was reduced through the loss of northern Bukovina and through the emigration of Saxons to Germany during the 1940s. Continued emigration is further reducing the Lutheran population.

The Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, and Pentecostal churches were united by government decree in 1950 into the Federation of Protestant Cults. The estimates of the membership at the time of the merger vary greatly, but it probably included between 50,000 and 100,000 Baptists, 15,000 to 70,000 Adventists, and about 5,000 Pentecostals. Before their merger none of these churches had a central organization in Romania, as their congregations were directed from abroad.

In the reorganization of theological education in 1948, the Department of Cults assigned one school for church singers and one theological institute for the training of clergy to each Protestant denomination. There was some indication that all denominations had difficulty recruiting young men for the ministry after World War II. After more than a decade of complete isolation from their fellows in other countries, all the Protestant churches resumed an active association with the World Council of Churches in 1961.

OTHER RELIGIONS AND CHURCHES