In the times when Rome ruled over only a few villages on the left bank of the Tiber, our ancestors, who lived by the Danube river, formed a great, strong and united people. They possessed a certain culture and outlook on life and death. The Geto-Dacian piety was almost unique in the whole of antiquity. This assertion is based on Strabo’s words on "piety", which the Greek geographer said was "as old as the world". Socrates shared the same opinion and praised Zalmolxis, the Geto-Dacian supreme God, as a genius. Due to their moral severity, the disciples of Zalmolxis lived a life of contemplation. They ate only plants and avoided any impurity. Drunkenness and debauchery were strongly rejected. Belief in the immortality of the soul and reward after death were basic concepts of our ancestors.

The process of Christianization of the Romanian people was based on the belief that "the Romanian people is born Christian". In view of the historical details of the development of Christianity in the Romanian lands, one can distinguish three stages:

- The penetration of Christianity in Dacia before the Roman conquest;

- The penetration of Christianity after the conquest until the withdrawal of the Romans (106-271 A.D.);

- The penetration of Christianity after the Roman administration left Dacia, in the years after 271 A.D.

Seeds of the Gospel were spread on Romanian soil by the Apostle St. Andrew in the second half of the first century A.D. The Church historian, Eusebius of Caesareea (265-339), the founder of Church history, stated that the Apostle, Andrew, preached in Scythia Minor (on the shore of the Black Sea).

The consolidation and development of Romanian Christianity cannot be given a certain date, as could some other peoples who were compelled by their kings to become Christian. With our people, there was at first a popular Christianity which spread through the poor classes of the towns and of the larger settlements and with time came to take deep roots throughout the whole country. Archeological discoveries prove the existence of an intensive ecclesial life from the end of the fourth century, including churches, bishops, priests and many believers.

The Christian faith and ecclesial institution played an important part in the whole history of the Romanian people. Beginning with the 16th century in the orthodox monasteries there was the first printing in the Romanian language and the first Romanian schools. Within this religious universe the cultural and educational basis of the Romanian existence was born. The Church has always stood close to the millions of believers and from them has recruited its hierarchy. The Orthodox Church in particular consolidated our people and best defined the Romanian spirit.

After 1947 religious life in Romania was confronted with the horrors of atheistic communism. The dialectical, materialist ideology secularized religious manifestations, imposing restrictions and interdictions which deeply affected the religious liberty and the consciousness of the Romanian people. The Revolution of December 1989, reopened the doors for the Church and religious life to regain their real and rightful autonomy.

Until 1989, there was no democratic practice in the religion in Romania because of the absence of democratic juridical, practical and administrative regulations. In a religious state the normative documents are elaborated by the religious institutions; in lay countries these measures are taken by the governments through consultation with the religious institutions.

In most democratic countries, there is already a specific literature dealing with the problems of religious liberty, and there are also many international organisms which keep under control and protection the observance of religious rights and religious liberty. In our country, we witness the beginning of the manifestation of such experiences, the shaping of theoretical and practical points of view concerning the problems of the religious liberty due to some authors who have assimilated the spirit of a modern and democratic culture.

After 1989, religion has experienced a strong revival and the Church has regained its real autonomy in relation to the state. Likewise, the religious faiths are equal to one another before the public authorities and the law. What makes these different are the subjective choice of the citizens for one or another acknowledged faiths. For the official stipulation of these religious rights a project of the Law for the General Regulation of Cults has been drawn up with the direct contribution of all religious faiths.

Most countries with a long democratic tradition possess a specific lay literature about religious liberty. Romanian specialists ought to consider as the creation of such a specific literature to be an immediate priority. There have been already some successful attempts in this field. Among reference works one stands out: "Religious Liberty in the Contemporary World" by Ilie Fonta, an expert in the problems of religious life, published in 1994. All these works provide theoretical resources for ongoing development in this domain.

UNO documents regarding the religious liberty include: "The Universal Declaration of the Human Rights," paragraph 18, provides: "Each person has the right of free thinking, of free conscience and religion; this right also refers to the liberty of changing one’s religion or faith, and to the free manifestation of religion by oneself or in group, both in public or privately, through education, practices, cult and rituals."

"The International Pact Regarding Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" (1966), paragraph 13, stipulates: "The states agree that education should encourage understanding, tolerance and friendship between all the ethnic and religious groups. The signatory States engage themselves to respect the freedom of parents, and, according to the situation, of guardians to choose for their children schools other than those of public education . . . and to ensure the religious and moral education of their children according to their own beliefs".

"The International Pact Regarding the Civil and the Political Rights," paragraph 18, stipulates: "Each person has the right of free thinking, of free conscience and religion; this right refers to the freedom of having or choosing a religion or belief as well as to the free manifestation of their religion or belief by oneself or in a group, both in public or privately, through cult, fulfillment of rites and practices or through the appropriation of knowledge about a respective religion. There will be no prevention or coercion for anyone to have one’s own belief according to one’ s own free choice."

Likewise, other documents can be mentioned: "The Declaration Regarding the Rights of People Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities" (1992), "The Declaration Regarding the Elimination of All Kinds of Intolerance and Discrimination for Reasons of Religion or Belief" (1981), etc. Out of the multitude of documents, I have chosen the ones which have direct religious reference and also reference to the normative contexts of religious education.

All these extracts and quotations from the reference documents of wide international circulation lie at the basis of the elaboration of the Romanian documents in this specific domain.

It is well known that two UNO organisms, "The Committee for the Human Rights" and "The Committee for the Fight Against the Discriminatory Measures and for the Protection of the Minorities" elaborate periodically or in situations of immediate need reports on the observance by the states of the fundamental religious rights and liberty. Many experts who draw up these works have carefully studied the religious life in Romania, making observations and guiding the process of democratic structures in this domain of social life.

In his work, "The Religious Liberty in the Contemporary World," mentioned above, Ilie Fonta shows that:

Romania’s Constitution itself represents the main document which catalyses the reformation of the ideas of religious liberty. Adopted in 1991, this document stipulates the following provisions regarding religious life and liberty:

- paragraph 4 (2): "Romania is the country common and indivisible for all its citizens irrespective of race, nationality, ethnic origin, language, religion, sex, opinions, party allegiance, wealth or social origin";

- paragraph 6 (1): "The State acknowledges and guarantees the right of persons belonging to national minorities to preserve, develop and express their ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity";

- paragraph 7 : "The State supports the consolidation of relations with Romanians living abroad and takes action for the preservation, development and expression of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity in keeping with the legislation of the country in which they live";

- paragraph 29 (1): "The freedom of thought and of opinion, as well as the liberty of religious belief, cannot be restricted under any circumstances. None whatsoever can be constrained to embrace an opinion or to adhere to a religious belief against his own convictions" (2) "Liberty of conscience is guaranteed by law; it ought to express itself through tolerance and mutual respect"; (3) "Religious faiths are free to organize themselves in accord with their own regulations in keeping with the law"; (4) "Within the relationships between the different religious faiths any forms, means, acts or actions of religious quarrels are banned"; (5) "The religious faiths are independent from the State and benefit from its support having religious assistance in the Army, in hospitals, prisons, asylums and in the orphanages"; (6) "Parents or legal tutors have the rights to give education to their underage children according to their own beliefs";

- paragraph 32 (5): "Institutions of education, including private ones, are set up and carry on their activity on legal terms"; (7): "The State ensures the liberty of religious education in keeping with the specific requirements of each religious faith. In public schools religious education is organized and guaranteed by law".

As stated above, constitutional provisions stipulate sections or paragraphs of law with democratic content in full accordance with the demands and the exigencies of the UNO documents in force concerning the observance of the religious liberty.

There are also some other official documents which deal with the problems analyzed above: The Project for the new "Law of the Religious Cults and Liberties in Romania" has been drawn up to substitute for Decree no. 177 / 1948 regarding the organization of the religious faiths in Romania, a former document which provisionally regulated the activity of the religious faiths in Romania.

In Romania 15 religious faiths are officially acknowledged. These may freely choose their leading bodies without any interference from the state, may carry on their educational activities and organize institutions of theological education. They benefit from material and financial support from the state in addition to their own funds and economic basis. There are the following religious faiths:

The Romanian Orthodox Church was part of the spiritual life of the Romanian people by the historical circumstances under which our people was formed. As already mentioned the Romanian people was born Christian, the process of Christianization taking place in the spirit of the Orthodox right. During all the crucial moments in the history of this people, the Orthodox Church has played an important part in the assertion of the national identity, in the cultural and spiritual development of the inner Romanian nature.

Orthodoxy (the Greek orthos and doxa — the right teaching) identifies itself with the Apostolic tradition validated, interpreted and developed by the consensus of the Councils of the Universal Church (Ecumenical Councils). According to the statistical data of the census on January 7th, 1992, of the total of 22,760,449 inhabitants in Romania, 19,762,135, that is to say 86.80 percent are Orthodox believers.

The Romanian Church United with Rome (Greek Catholic United Church) came into being in 1698 in Transylvania through the union with the Church of Rome of those Romanian Orthodox clergymen and believers who recognized the Pope as their Church leader. The new Church accepted some of the Catholic dogmas (the Papal Primacy, the Eucharistic Sacrifice with unfermented bread, the dogma of filioque — that the Holy Spirit precedes from both Father and Son — the existence of Purgatory, while preserving the Byzantine rite unaltered. In this way, it has preserved the ancestral law, the ecclesial organization and the proper cult in the Orthodox spirit.

The Roman Catholic Church also derives from the apostolic tradition and the councils. The more recent presence of Catholicism on the Romanian territory came in the 11th century, brought by some Dominican and Benedictin monks involved in spreading Romanian Christianity. As Transylvania was being conquered by the Magyar feudal kingdom, the Catholic Hungarians and later the German Catholics began to settle in this Romanian province, Catholic bishoprics were created in the 11th and 12th centuries.

The relationships between the Catholic Church and the Romanian state are regulated through the Concordate between Romania and the Vatican ratified in 1929. It stipulates the existence of three Catholic rites: the Oriental Rite (Greek Catholic), the Latin Rite (Roman Catholic) and the Armenian Rite. The Roman Catholic Church now has 1,144,820 believers, of whom 700,000 are Hungarian, 300,000 are Romanians, 70,000 are Germans, and the rest are of other nationalities.

The Reformed Church emerged on Romanian territory in the first half of the 16th century and made converts among the Catholic Hungarians in Transylvania. The penetration and consolidation of the Reformed doctrine was facilitated by the practice of preaching the Gospel in the mother tongue, against the practice of the Catholic Church which celebrated the Mass only in Latin. From the doctrinaire point of view the Reformed Church in our country also obeys "the Heidelberg Catechism," elaborated in 1545. The Reformed Church was acknowledged officially in our country in 1564 in Transylvania. Nowadays in Romania the Reformed Church has 801,577 believers, all of Magyar nationality.

The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania is part of the family of Lutheran Churches. The Reformation spread among the Saxons from Transylvania in mid-16th century due to the contacts with the spiritual life in Western Europe and with the German universities. Before 1944 there were 250,000 Evangelical believers, but after the Second World War and due to the political events that followed, especially the emigrations, the number of parishioners has drastically fallen to 39,552.

The Synodo-Presbyterian Evangelical Church has the same doctrine as the Augsburg Confession Evangelical Church, but unlike the believers of the other faiths, the Synodo Presbyterian Evangelical believers are of Magyar and Slovak nationality. During the 16th century, after the foundation of the Reformed Church, there were still to be found some Magyar Lutheran Parishes in Transylvania and some Slovak parishes in Banat. They held the Synodo-Presbyterian creed cuius regio, eius religio. At present this church has 21,160 believers.

The Unitarian Church came into being in Transylvania in the mid-16th century as a variant of Protestantism. The Unitarian Church does not allow the dogma of the Holy Trinity and confers upon lay believers an important part in the organization and conducting of the divine service. Nowadays the Unitarian Church is present in some Transylvanian districts and counts 76,333 believers.

The Armenian Church is the national Church of the Armenian people living in the area bordered by the Caucasian Mountains, the Caspian and the Black Seas. The Armenians settled in our country in the 11th-12th centuries. In point of dogma, the differences between the Orthodox Church and the Armenian Church are insignificant. The divine service is celebrated in the Old Armenian language. Nowadays there are no more than 2,000 Armenian believers here.

The Old Christian Rite — the So-called Lipovean Church is known to be made up of the descendants of Russian believers who emigrated to our country in the 18th century because of the persecution by the Russian authorities of all who did not accept the reforms initiated by the Patriarch Nikon. Their cult holds its religious services in the Paleoslavonic language and keeps the old style calendar. The area with believers who profess this faith is around Braila. There are 32,000 believers.

The Christian Baptist Church was founded in Amsterdam in 1611. It came into our country first under the form of Anabaptism, and later in the mid-19th century, it consolidated both its doctrine and the structure of its ecclesiastical community. The number of its believers is now 110,000.

The Pentecostal Faith — God’s Apostolic Church was recognized officially in Romania in 1950 although it existed since 1924. The basis of the spiritual life of each believer is one’s personal conversion and baptism through immersion in water. This religious faith now has 220,000 believers.

The Seventh Day Adventist Church began to spread its doctrines during the second half of the last century through Polish preachers. It was officially recognized in 1950 and now has 78,600 believers.

The Christian Faith according to the Gospel came into being in 1899 through the organization of the first group of "free Christians" under the influence of some foreign missionaries. In 1933 these Christians, faithful to the Gospel, were officially recognized, and in 1939, because of the vicissitudes of times, they had to amalgamate with the Christians faithful to the Holy Scriptures giving birth to the Christian Faith according to the Gospel. After 1989 the two branches of this faith separated, and now there are 50,000 believers.

The Romanian Evangelical Church is a Christian Evangelical movement born in Romania in 1924. It arose from the interpretation given to the holy Scripture by two young orthodox Romanians. Although in 1939, by force of circumstances, they were amalgamated with the Christians faithful to the Gospel, in 1989 the faith became autonomous under the name of "The Romanian Evangelical Church".

The Mosaic Faith has deep roots dating from the times when Dacia was under Roman occupation and when there were Jews in the Roman legions. Chronicles from the 16th century mention this population and its faith. The political emancipation of the Jews, often promised to them, became a reality in 1923 when the Constitution granted all the religious faiths rights and liberty. In 1948 the Mosaic Faith became statutory. Now it has 9,102 believers.

The Muslim Faith (Islamic) includes a population of Sunites (Turks, Tatars, Albanians), the practice of their faith being closely related to the 13th century when a Turkish-Tatar population settled in our country. This faith is more developed in the southeastern part of the country, in Dobruja; the overall membership is 56,000.

As has been stated before, in Romania religious life is rich and varied and the structures of faith may freely organize and function. Each citizen has free choice of any of the religious values, the choice being made according to one’s own axiological system.

As has been shown in the paragraphs dedicated to each religious cult officially recognized in Romania, the distribution of the Romanian population according to religion is extremely varied. Therefore, the census made in 1992 shows that out of a population of about 22,766,449 inhabitants:

- 19,762,135 or 86.6 percent are Orthodox;

- 78,658 or 0.3 percent are Adventists;

- 220,051 or 1.0 percent are Penticostals;

- 49,393 or 0.2 percent are Christians According to the Gospel;

- 9,775 are Jews;

- 55,988 or 0.2 percent are Muslims;

- 86,011 or 0.3 percent are of other religions out of which:

23.643 or 0.1 percent are Old Rite Christians;

2,023 are Armens;

11,339 are atheists;

24,740 or 0.1 percent without religion;

14,949 or 0.1 percent with undeclared religion

This shows that in Romania religious life, often without much knowledge and instruction, includes the majority of the population. The percentage of atheists and people without religion (0.2 percent) is minimal.

Due to the fact that almost every person confirmed affiliation to a religion, the problems of religious life should not be left at random but should be closely attended to and coordinated.

As a consequence of the granting of religious liberty after the Revolution in 1989, associations and organizations of a religious character have developed. They carry on specific religious activities under the protection of the legally recognized religious faiths or independently.

Thus, most of the citizens who before 1989 carried on illegal religious activities (such as the Old Rite Orthodox Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses (26,000 members), the Nazareans and others now have the freedom to organize independent religious associations. In Romania there are also associations such as "The Lord’s Host", "The New Apostolic Christians", "The Baha’i", "The Hare Krishnas" and others.

Lately, Romania has been confronted with several antisocial factors. They are put into practice through the activity of a few associations which, under the cover of philanthropic slogans and goals, denigrate and impede the activity of the officially recognized religious cults and instigate civil unsubordination and antisocial actions. The incriminated associations defend their behavior by appeal to respect for religious liberty. In order to meet these immediate social needs the general judicial framework regarding the regime of the religious associations should be reconsidered.

Throughout the centuries the Churches and the places of cult have preserved such matchless testimonies to Romanian spirituality as churches and monasteries, books, paintings, cultic vessels — all true treasures of the old arts and culture. All these signs of the rich spiritual tradition of the Romanian people, born from the ancestral religious spirit, are central to the cult that created them. These values may be found in the almost 3000 churches and monasteries, all undeniable historical monuments and sites spread throughout Romania, along with the history of this people from its ethnogenesis until now. The examples of the monasteries in northern Moldavia, the Transylvanian wooden churches and others — most of which are now included in the UNESCO patrimony which protects them — clearly establish the exceptional cultural and axiological situation of Romanian places of worship.

To this architectural patrimony can also be added such artistic objects as paintings, icons, books, documents, cultic vessels made of precious metals, vestment accessories, sculptures, pieces of furniture. These are also included in the patrimony of each religious cult and are found in churches and centers of cult. Many such objects, used for the cult and which are of cultural value, are exhibited in over 70 museums and ecclesial collections opened to the public.

The cultic objects of special value belonging to the religious faith are kept in custody or on loan in the public cultural institutions: museums, archives, libraries, etc. Their restoration and preservation is urgent for both the religious faith and the Romanian State.

Monasticism has been present in Romania since the 4th century. Historical testimonies from that time affirm that, during the persecution of the Christians by Atanaric, several monks suffered a martyr’s death. During the 5th and 6th centuries local monastic life grew stronger. St. John Cassian, a Dobrujan monk, spread Orthodox monasticism and Dionysios Exiguus ("The Little") who created the system of calculating the Christian era, and the "Scythian monks" are only a few examples.

Also in Dobruja, at Murfatlar, in the 10th century a monastic cave settlement was discovered. Until the 12th-13th centuries the monastic life was also reinvigorated in a hesychastic spirit in other regions inhabited by Romanians such as Tismana, Prislop, Hateg, etc. From this moment onwards monastic life began to develop. Monasteries were set up on the whole Romanian territory, some of special patrimonial and cultural value. It is known that piety was so strong among the Romanian people, that it was a tradition for each Romanian prince (ruler) to have a monastery built after each victorious battle.

Romanian monasticism endured persecutions during the Communist age when many monasteries were closed or destroyed, and there were restrictions on those who wanted to take up monasticism.

After 1989 the monastic life in Romania began an ongoing process of restoration. Since 1990 from a total of 289 (189 monasteries, 75 skates and 12 succursal monasteries) 116 Orthodox monastic settlements were re-established. The government has supported the monastic life with funds and agricultural fields. Not only the Orthodox Church but other religious faiths have organized monastic life: e.g. the Old Rite Christian Cult, the Greek-Catholic Church and the Old Rite Orthodox Church.

In Romania there are also to be found some Catholic monastic Orders: Franciscan, Benedictin, "The Sisters of Mother Theresa" devoted to charitable deeds, etc.

The Romanian emigration began in the context of socio-historic events, most of the emigrants being of Orthodox faith. The need to perpetuate their religious customs and traditions led the larger groups to organize themselves in parishes which asked that specially trained staff to be sent. At the same time the respective religious organizations became real centers of manifestation of Romanian spirituality. On the cultural level their activity is expressed through periodic publications, organizing Sunday schools and parish libraries and festive celebrations of national holidays or of outstanding personalities from Romanian history.

At present, according to the statistics of the State Secretariat for Cults, there are over 300 religious communities abroad, uniting Romanian believers from France, Austria, England, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Albania, Israel, USA, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and the countries of the former USSR.

With respect to denominations, over 250 communities abroad belong to the Orthodox faith and over 50 to the Greek-Catholic Church, the Baptists, the Adventists and Pentecostals.

Real education means more than the usual series of classes required by the traditional view on education. Enthusiastic appreciation of the need for religious education is now found in all countries that have reached a certain cultural level and in all fields of human activity. Specialists working in teams are now preoccupied to turn religion into a means of permanent education of the contemporary person. Yet this education, held in high esteem, has to cope with reserved attitudes and prejudices, kept alive by various atheistic ideologies hostile to religion. It must cope as well with one-sided concepts about religion which miss its profound essence or which in daily life praise science and technology over religion.

In addition there is an excessive focus on the confessional tendencies as a result of the multiplication of religious faiths. Hence, writings on Christian pedagogy increasingly contain warnings which criticize both the ambiguity of the different religious tendencies and the extreme secularization of the last decades in the geo-political areas under the influence of Marxist ideology.

However, once the atheistic ideological system of dialectical materialism was eliminated, Romanian cultural and spiritual space required a reformulation and reinterpretation of the ideal of the Romanian society. Mircea Eliade, an outstanding Romanian thinker, would say, "Man molds himself as man through religious spirit", in which sense we would say that the name homo religiosus is carved in the ontological essence of the structure of the human personality. Under present circumstances when homo sapiens feels the bitter taste of an alarming spiritual alienation, his only solution remains his metamorphosis into homo religiosus as the only way to return to himself, to introspect the depths of his personality, and to truly understand his individual behavior.

The general direction in the study of religion draws from Romanian works the following premises, which define the immediate imperatives and implications of the religious education for Romanian education:

- the process of transmitting the religious culture should become a formative process through the values of the Christian religion, especially as this education used to be reduced to a simply informative one in the rare moments when it was presenting;

- in accord with the humanistic and religious spirit of education, in the schools each individual should become an active participant in the discovery, promotion and transmission of the values of the Christian religion. Through religious education, children should develop a religious conscience, and in their souls there should be instilled a true and fertile love for Christen values;

- in order to serve society and build the personality of each individual, religious education should be related in content and spirit with the development of science, art and technology, and also with the perduring guideposts of religion which become even more decisive for social progress.

Religious education has to keep pace, as regards method, with the development of science and technology, as the methods within the scientific and technological field have been clearer and more convincing than those promoted by religion. The process of modernization within the religious field in Romania must still face these challenges.

From the beginning religious faiths have aimed at shaping human beings and at the preparation of children and youth for integration into the religious communities. During certain historical periods, the churches were the main social institutions concerned with the elaboration of the general view of children’s education. All the historic Christian churches paid attention to the elaboration of moral theology, religious ethics and cathechistical activity.

In this way, the clergy has a store of theoretical and practical knowledge which can be a real source of inspiration and wisdom for the contemporary societies confronted with phenomena of serious immorality. This is especially true as certain lay moral conceptions and standards cannot replace the spiritual premises within which the religious morals ensure the optimal functioning of the human collectivities and of society as a whole. Even in ideal situations where secular morals fulfill their moral goals, religious morals and church education contribute to the prevention of immoral and antisocial actions and to the strengthening of morals in society.

In the ex-socialist countries, the children and the educational system were estranged from the values of religious life not only through secularization, but also by the imposed atheistic ideology. In many of these countries, including Romania, after 1989 the educational and formative values have been reconsidered and the role of the Church, of the faith and of the clergymen in the shaping of the new generation has been reevaluated.

In this respect both in the religious and in the secular press there have been great debates expressing various points of view. While some clergymen proposed the "tale-quale" restoration of the traditional educational role of the Church in the public schools, a number of lay intellectuals requested that the Church not be involved in the educational process. There are still arguments on this matter, and they also take place within the leading bodies of the religious faith, state organisms, classrooms, churches and families.

The constitutional provisions themselves regarding the religious life have long been debated. Some advocate a democratic character to ensure freedom of conscience, whereas others characterize them as neo-communist and non-democratic.

The arguments raised by those who criticize the Constitution are characterized by subjectivism and dilettantism, holding as an absolute model the Romanian experience prior to 1948 and particularly the medieval experience. On the other side, there are many others who advocate the correctness of the provisions of the Romanian Constitution regarding the teaching of religion in schools, but their weakness is that, while they have firm faith in their points of view, they fail to provide specialized argumentation.

David B. Barret in 1982 made a comparative study of the Constitution and of other normative acts from 224 states. He holds that the countries should be divided in three categories according to the way they relate to religion. Thus, there are 30 atheist countries, 92 lay countries and 25 are Islamic.

The theologians and the education specialists in Romania should be in the first rank to emphasize the role of religion in the society, with special impact on children and youth. This fact would require the elaboration of special works based on the contemporary historical and educational sciences with reference to the educational and formative role of religion. Children and the youth should be familiar with the Bible, with the main notions of moral theology, with religious morals and other religious knowledge. This is important for the following reasons:

- The great religions have usually hallowed and justified those conceptions and human practices which promote the stability, functionality and progress of human society. Theologians defended and justified on a Biblical basis these human practices and conception, turning them into religious values. They were also concerned with the theological justification of the need to fight and eliminate human conceptions and practices which had an anomic function in the society and represented a source of dysfunctionality for the social body.

- The churches were concerned with the preparation of believers to integrate themselves into society and adapt to its demands. This function was carried out through the elaboration of theological conceptions and cultic practices. In this respect, particularly significant are the concepts of Christian love and help among the Christians, of obedience towards the authorities and the social order, of fulfilling one’s duties towards family and society.

- The religious faiths and the church have always had as a main concern the shaping and the education of children and youth by endowing them with social knowledge and skills to develop their personality and become worthy members of society. The historical experience of the Christian churches in the educational field is expected to improve contemporary education and to inspire the present educational institutions with their wisdom.

- The religious faiths have always had at their disposal specific ways and means to justify and reinforce certain human concepts and behavior.

Religion supplies messages, projects and mechanisms of stimulation and compensation with high efficiency in the education of children whose moral purity, particular sensitivity, affection and imagination are an ideal basis for the religious shaping of characters. The religious faiths have some specific, even unique, educational factors which only they can use effectively.

Elizabeth Odio Benito (1989) shows that most works specifying the conditions of a religious education contain the following protections against imposing religious education, all of which are found in the relevant Romanian documents:

a. It is specified that attending religion classes is optional, the parents having the right to decide the participation of their children in these classes. The UNO Declaration from 1981 shows that: "Each child has the right to have access, as far as religion and beliefs are concerned, to education according to the will of his parents. . . ."

b. It is also specified that pupils cannot be forced to attend religious education. The UNO Declaration states: "Children cannot be constrained to receive knowledge referring to a religion or belief against the will of their parents or of their legal tutors."

c. Parents and children are provided the necessary formalities with which they can comply in order not to attend any form of religious education.

d. It is emphasized that pupils should attend either religious education classes or those of lay morals.

e. It is also pointed out that religious education is done as a study of religion and not in a cultic form.

f. There is reference to the persons who teach religious education classes and the content of the syllabus.

Scientific objectivity obliges us to add the following observations about the possible negative implications of religious education or the conditions it imposes upon itself.

Religious education may have negative effects when it aims at proselytism, attacks some religious cults, instigates quarrels, hatred and religious intolerance. Religious education can attain its goal only by limiting itself to the presentation of the specific aspects of each cult and the differences which separate it from others.

The state organism must survey the process of religious education and study the effects of religious knowledge upon the process of the formation and education of the pupils. Due to the decreasing efficiency of some lay educational systems, most historians and education specialists strongly recommend a reconsideration of religious education in the contemporary world.

For this reason, most countries have included among the religious rights that of religious education of children and youth. The regulations and the warranty of this right differ from one geo-political area to another and from one country to another according to three essential factors:

- the role played by the Christian churches in each society;

- the elaboration of the political system according to the principle of separation of Church and state;

- the degree of ensuring fundamental human rights and liberty.

Within Romania we witness the modernization of the legislative framework. Measures have been taken to ensure liberty of conscience and freedom of thought, and the role of religious faiths within the public education system has been reconsidered.

After an interruption of 42 years, beginning with 1990-1991, "Moral-Religious Education" has been included in the public education of pupils from the 1st to the 8th grades in public schools, orphanages and special schools for disabled pupils.

After two experimental years and the passing of the Romanian Constitution (paragraph 327, "The State ensures the liberty of religious education according to the specific needs of each religious faith. In the public schools religious education is organized and guaranteed by law") since 1992-1993 religion classes have been included in the syllabus and in the school documents of the primary and lower secondary schools.

Thus, in the official document specifications regarding teaching in moral-religious education classes at the 1st-8th grades, fixing the weekly work quota and the appointment of the teachers-to-be, the following provisions are stipulated:

- inclusion of this subject in the school documents and in the school timetable (the specific character of the religious activity of each faith is to be taken into account);

- teaching moral-religious education shall be done only within the school; and

- pupils shall be enrolled according to their parents’ options or their own.

The document also certifies the optional character of this subject, meaning that the families, according to their religious beliefs, are free to decide whether their children attend these classes or not.

Regarding the staff qualified to teach this subject in the public educational system and in particular for the Orthodox faith, only priests and the young graduates of the Theological Institutes are to teach religion. Each religious faith trains teachers on its own.

Nowadays, the number of the pupils attending Moral-Religious Education classes is increasing. After many years of spiritual religious secularization there is an ever increasing wish on the part of the children and youth to obtain a richer knowledge in this domain. In addition to this there is a massive participation of children and youth in the periodic services of the religious faiths.

Taking advantage of the legal right to organize schools to train their own staffs, the religious faiths have set up schools in the mother tongue of their believers, theological seminaries, and further education through theological schools and social assistance schools and faculties and theological institutes belonging to the University.

Until 1989 the system of theological educational institutions had eleven theological seminaries (of the nature of vocational schools) and five theological institutes of university rank which granted diplomas which were non-equivalent to those granted by the state schools. Nowadays the system of lower and higher education includes 46 theological seminaries, eight colleges of health assistance and 31 theological institutes and faculties. Most of these institutes and faculties have 2-4 sections each of a complex didactic type whose graduates get a diploma for a double specialization: religion teachers and teachers of any other subject. These institutes now provide new studies and specializations. At the same time there has been a review of all those who graduated from the theological schools between 1948-1990, and their studies and diplomas have been equalized.

Beginning with 1992-1993, the state gives direct, including financial, support to the institutional development of the centers of education and professional-religious training of each cult.

The study of religion as a psychology and social phenomenon begins from the observation that religion is the most easily penetratable gate of the human spirit. Because of a high degree of subjectivity in religious belief and behavior, there is danger of ideas and convictions contradictory to the specific features of the human personality.

Moreover, the communitary side of religious beliefs favors the propagation of cultic ideas through psychological and emotional group channels. This is a great risk for children and youth who are rationally and emotionally immature.

These phenomena are universal and Romania has not been precluded from them. They are found mainly in the activity of some organizations which, under the cover of philanthropic slogans, denigrate other religious cults, attack state authorities and generate violence. Through such manifestations, the respective associations, foundations and other organizations of nongovernmental character have a baneful role in society which is dangerous especially as they have focused on schools, high schools, faculties, student hostels and boarding schools, orphanages, etc. This includes psychological manipulation, depersonalization, absurd unbalanced behavior alien to human nature: fighting, psychic and physical self-mutilations, collective marriages, the use of holy psychotrope drinks and even abominable murders.

Religious liberty, a basic component of the liberty of conscience and one of the first liberties written in the catalogue of the human rights, is regulated both at the international level and inside each country. Religious liberty in Romania, as stated above, has had a special socio-political history. Over the centuries its history has been strewn with intolerance, excommunications and prejudices, much suffering and pain. During this long history, juridical theories have been elaborated and laws were recognized as means of civilization and peace.

Paragraph no. 23 of the Romanian Constitution assures freedom of conscience for the natural person to hold and express in private or in public a certain view of the surrounding world, of sharing or not sharing a religious belief, of belonging or not belonging to a religious faith, and of fulfilling or not fulfilling the rituals required by that belief.

Freedom of conscience, as a fundamental liberty, has a complex meaning with several aspects. As an essential liberty, that of conscience is in command of the existence and of such other types of liberty as: freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the freedom of association, because these liberties are mediated through the expression of one’s mind, religion and opinions.

Paragraph no. 29 from the Romanian Constitution stipulates that each person has the right to possess his/her own conception about the surrounding world. One’s consciousness cannot and ought not to be directed through administrative measures. It should always be the result of one’s freedom to think and freely express one’s thoughts. Any kind of coercion is a violation of this natural and imprescribable right. That is why the Constitution stipulates that no one should be forced to adhere to an opinion or to adopt a religious belief against his/her convictions.

Freedom of conscience should be understood also as a factor of spiritual continuity within the family, parents having the natural right and obligation to take care of their children and of their education. The education of children in the family is in accord with the parents’ ideas and conceptions: the relationship, child-parent, is a spiritual relationship in itself. The parents bear the moral, social and sometimes juridical responsibility for the deeds and acts and for the behavior of their underage children.

It is the same when the education of the underage children devolves upon other persons than the natural parents. As regards these moral, religious, political and juridical factors, liberties and responsibilities, the Constitution stipulates that parents or guardians should have the right to ensure, according to their beliefs, the education of the underage children for whom they are responsible. This legal provision is not, however, respected by sectarian organizations which advocate that children do not belong to their parents but that God only entrusted to them their upbringing.

Many provisions in the Constitution refer to religious cults. One may notice that the term "cult" has two different meanings: one refers to the religious organization, the other to the practice of ritual. Cults organize themselves freely, according to their own statute. The Romanian Constitution includes provisions for relationships between the state and the religious cults. Regarding these relationships, historic practice and comparative law have always followed one of three formulas:

- the state as public authority identifies itself with the religious authority;

- the state may enter into an alliance with the religious authority;

- the state adopts a position of indifference to religion, avoiding either favoring or limiting them and watches over the practices of the religious cults so that they should not disturb the public order.

The provisions of the Romanian Constitution with regard to the separation between Church and state guarantee the independence of the religious cults, but the state binds itself to support the cults through the facilitation of religious assistance in the Army, in hospitals, prisons, asylums and orphanages.

Another priority, stipulated by the Constitutional provisions, concerns the relationships between the religious faiths. By guaranteeing freedom of conscience the Constitution proclaims the effective equality between believers and unbelievers and cultivates a climate of mutual tolerance and respect between believers and unbelievers. In order to maintain the atmosphere of peace and quiet between the religious faiths proper to religion any forms, means, acts and actions of religious quarrels between the faiths are banned.

From an international perspective, religious liberty is defined in the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, the International Pact regarding the Civil and Political Rights and also the European Convention of Human Rights. These are documents of great importance. The International Pact regarding the Civil and Political Rights in paragraph 18 sanctions the right of each person to freedom of thought and of conscience and religion. It asserts the person’s liberty to have or to profess a religion or belief by his/her own free will and also the liberty of expressing his/her religion/belief, individually or in the group, in public or in private through cult and rituals, practices and education.

Nonetheless, no person and no religious organization is permitted in the name of religious liberty to practice acts incompatible with human life, physical integrity, good manners or Constitutional order. Organizations like: AUM — Supreme Truth sect, satanic sects, certain Yoga orientations and techniques, the Children of the Lord sect and Jehovah’s Witnesses carry on cultic activities on the Romanian territory under the cover of religious organizations recognized or not by the State.

The negative social, political and personal effects of these organizations are as follows:

- National sovereignty: actions of antinational and chauvinistic character;

- Constitutional order: violation of constitutional principles and provisions;

- Social dimension: public security, public order, public health;

- Humanistic dimension: physical integrity, mental balance and personal dignity.

For abolishing these deviant and antisocial manifestations of some non-governmental religious organizations the restrictions provided by the law are the most efficient means. All international pacts and agreements recognize for the domestic legislation of each country the limitation and restriction of certain rights and liberties in the case of such threats. An examination of these stipulations shows that limitations and restrictions can be applied if clearly provided by the law and required in a democratic society in which public order, health, morals, rights and liberties are jeopardized. Limitations must have in view at the same time, the general welfare of a democratic society.

The Romanian Constitution is open to these international regulations and allows, through paragraph 49, the restriction of the exercise of some civil rights and liberties, but only in special cases and conditions. The Constitution limits restrictions to certain clearly defined situations of undeniable importance.

The official recognition of the religious organizations (associations, sects, foundations) raised the problem of the establishment of a clear statute and of the differences between them and the religious cults/faiths. No matter how their juridical status is regulated, a common feature of most of the national legislation is the fact that the legislators stipulate the terms under which they become legal, can organize and function, and their relationships with the State bodies.

In order to prevent antisocial and antihuman manifestations, public authorities, on the basis of the normative acts, have the right to make inquiries, to verify and check if the religious organizations, as juridic persons recognized by the law, observe the Constitution, the legislation of the country and the terms established when they were legalized.

In the prior paragraphs, I have tried to outline the specific problems of religious life with regard to sectarian phenomena hidden under the cover of some non-governmental religious organizations.

As have been already noticed in post-revolutionary Romania, the religious values are an increasingly acute need. After hard years of secularization and interdiction, religious liberties are now respected in Romania through legislative guarantees: constitutional, legal, procedural, etc.

Religious life is secured to a great extent by the institutional religious education promoted by the religious faiths and by each parent and educator committed to providing their children with an education in the spirit of love for the ancient Christian traditions. The Romanian people was born Christian and, through the values of religious education, will forever remain so.

Barret, David, World Christian Encyclopedia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

"Constitutia Romaniei", Monitorul Oficial al Romaniei, December, 1991.

Guvernul Romaniei, Secretariatul de Stat pentru Culte, (The Religious Life in Romania). Bucharest, 1993.

Fonta, Ilie, The Religious Liberty in the Contemporary World. Bucuresti, 1994.

Odio Benito, Elizabeth, Elimination de toutes les formes d’ intolerance et discrimination fondées sur la religion ou la convention. New York: Nations Unies, 1989.