Authors: Drd. Rădulescu Gheorghe-Vlăduț, Mrd. Palcău Alexandru (Facultatea de Teologie Ortodoxă „Justinian Patriarhul” a Universității din București)
Keywords: Church, State, constitution, synergia, funds, Patriarchy
Abstract:
The common aspect of the activity of the Romanian Church and State at time of the Great Union is the state of sacrifice, which is actually present in most of the major events in the Romanian People’s existence. Talking about the 1918-1928 period, one must mention the fact that that the Romanian State was interested in and contributed to the unification of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Furthermore, it encouraged the participation of the Church in the moral guidance of the citizens in a direct correlation with the democratic evolution of the State. The common effort of the Church and the State for the elaboration of a viable plan regarding Church unity lasted for six years and was extremely difficult, but it was worthwhile as several projects on this theme were finalised. A characteristic of the relation between the Romanian Church and the State was the fact that the Ministry of Religious Affairs offered various sums of money to the Church, in order to complete the salaries of the clergy and the rest of the staff or for other material necessities. This occurrence was just a consequence of the article 21 of the Law for the Organization of the Romanian Orthodox Church voted on 6th May 1925. The funding provided by the State had a precise purpose and it was the strict duty of the Church Administration to account for it as well as for all the money and properties which they managed, so that the inspectors of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and those from the Ministry of Public Finance could supervise them. However, the Romanian State could not totally fulfil the necessities of the Romanian Orthodox Church, despite the support offered for the clerics’ salaries and the material gifts for the parishes. Naturally, any help offered to the Church was welcome, in that period when the effects of the appropriation of the Church patrimony were still felt. During the interwar period, the Romanian people underwent acute social-economic and political changes and, besides this situation, there was a serious threat of poverty. Thus, the immoral conduct increased, namely the cohabitation unsanctioned by marriage, the passions of excessive drinking, greed, lying, etc, which weakened not only the Church institution, but also all the social categories of the Romanian society. In order to fight against these passions, and also against the Proselytism, many priests and religion teachers were mobilised so that they can work zealously to shape and strengthen the moral-religious make-up of the society. Thus, the Church and some of the State Institutions worked closely together and initiated a series of activities having the purpose of educating and teaching the Romanian society what was the correct moral-religious behaviour, as this aspect of their lives had suffered and was missing. The Ministries of Internal Affairs, of the Religious Affairs and the Orthodox Church worked together to implement relevant practices, like the observation of Sunday rest, establishing Church and the national holidays, as well as those related to the royal family. They also attempted to close the pubs on Sundays and religious holidays, to prohibit sectarian propaganda, to eradicate cohabitation outside marriage and others.
Pages: 139-149