“The BOR would be called to illustrate how the Orthodox tradition and Euro-Altantic integration can be reunited – because this is a crucial guarantee of security for the Romanian state. This did not happen, so today the BOR found itself at the head of the aggressive policy of the Moscow Patriarchate, which, as in Stalin’s times, strives for hegemony in the Orthodox world. BOR does not strongly oppose this trend, nor does it provide constant support to the Ecumenical Patriarch, who rejects Moscow’s claims to be the leader of Orthodoxy. In addition, the patriarchy is also under pressure from anti-Western circles within, against which the BOR leadership can stand out only with great difficulty.” (Oliver Jens Schmitt, State church or church in the state? History of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 1918-2023Humanitas publishing house, Bucharest, 2023, p. 406)

Historian Oliver Jens Schmitt appears to be right on the “i” in the above-quoted lines, further mentioning that the corresponding “anti-Western circles” within the Holy Synod, supported by enough ecclesiastics from the base of the hierarchy, draw attention to the fact that the phenomenon is wider than it appears. prima facie, they have no decisive word to say now, however difficult their distinction may be. Since the rejection of the referendum on the family due to mass adult absenteeism in 2018, the BOR, although still strong, has been in an apparent symbolic retreat, with only the movement of AUR party troops keeping it from sinking. an abyss of inappropriateness in medium and large urban centers. After the scandals caused by members of the clergy such as Cristian Pomogachi, Corneliu Onile during the last decade, the financial investigations of the Recorder journalists or the anti-European statements of Archbishop Theodosius, Archbishop Tomis, who are increasingly outspoken in the last interval, is it clear that the BOR is in an internal split that caused a quarrel in the first half of 2023 between those who want a common Easter calendar for all European Christian families and followers of the national Orthodox tradition. nothing but to emphasize it to the point of becoming an obvious fact. In addition to the jealousy between pro-Westerners and anti-Westerners in BOR, minors in Romania are studying this topic Religion in schools, starting from the preparatory class until adulthood, in the twelfth grade.

What the students of the native region study in the subject Religion, which was resurrected after 1989 as a moral emblem of ancestral antiquity from the foam of the anti-communist seas that had dried up in Romania? In principle, according to school programs and textbooks adopted by the Ministry of Education, the Orthodox faith with brief references to other Christian cults and religions practiced throughout the world. The Orthodox Catechism is a concrete form of religious propaganda by the BOR in the name of the Romanian nation and local tradition, presented in a vague and confusing manner. Too long actually, since the mid-1990s, time Religion in Romanian schools, there is no such amount of fanaticism and indoctrination, in which some secular spirits, in the conditions of the total general dominance of secularism in society, fiercely accuse it of all kinds of over-interpreted contexts built on reductionist arguments. Apart from some outbursts of religious seriousness, doubled by verticality, where there is not enough sympathy for the spiritual forces of the Romanian student, in which case the teachers become fanatically insane and cover themselves with the complaints of parents and students, most of the teachers of the school Religion they relaxed their vigilance a long time ago. They are teachers cool with which there are exits in Another week or high school taskmasters, teachers who easily give high grades and try not to upset anyone. Instead of spiritual purification and a national-Christian educational ideal, as still utopianly dreamed of by the anti-Western faction in BOR, in turn marked by guilt and indelible stains, the religion class is seen as an optional, which could be interesting if the teacher was able to sympathetically problematize in high school , smart play in high school and didactic stories with an allusive religious message in elementary grades. The balance between religious studies and entertainment is difficult to achieve and is itself absurd. By definition, religion is not for entertainment. In confirmation of all this, the number of teachers who are charismatic in the pedagogical sense, endowed with deep special knowledge, and in addition charming and decent people in everyday life, is one tenth of a percent of the entire Romanian education system, regardless of discipline, school, level and profile. How to claim so many merits against the background of structural impotence not only of teachers Religion from Romania?

But it is precisely this paradoxical, shocking and disturbing phenomenon that we are dealing with. Religion is also part of the current education law promulgated in July 2023, the framework plans and the common core (cf. art. 86, 87 Law on pre-university education No. 198/2023). As an exception to the law, students may withdraw and re-enroll at any time Religion, for their own reasons or the personal reasons of their parents, vacillating between accepting another Christian denomination and another religion to the forms of agnosticism known for centuries. We study religion or not based on the results of filling out an annual application from parents or an adult student who, through an educational plebiscite, decides whether he belongs to the Orthodox religion. Therefore matter Religiondo what and not part of compulsory school subjects at the same time. Both higher forums of BOR, which annually issue certificates of worship to teachers of Religion, as well as the Ministry of Education, maintain this contradictory instability, with neither side still having the decisive weight to tip the scales decisively. However, regardless of the subdivisions characteristic of BOR, the fact that the teachers of Religion were a salutary presence in the 1990s, but three decades later are left without high protection in the face of the free (anti-)religious sensibilities of Romanian society. Why is there no decisive breakthrough? Why is the ambiguous situation still dragging on? As well as the work of teachers Religion it is connected not only with the state budget, although it is especially relevant, following the right acquired after 1990 to train thousands of future graduates in theological faculties, but also with the satisfaction barometer of direct and indirect beneficiaries of education, parents and students. likewise, why does the same ease not apply to public BOR funds? Why aren’t voting citizens in Romania asked whether they want or refuse to fund cults with their money? Parishes should be solely the responsibility of the Christian community, not the state budget, and thus there should be a complete separation between state and church, thus becoming Westernized on the Neo-Protestant or Catholic model the whole court. – Read the entire article and comment on Contributors.ro