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Romania The Romanian Orthodox Church
In the late 1980s, the Romanian Orthodox Church, by far
the
largest denomination, claimed some 16 million
members--roughly 70
percent of the total population. The church had some
12,000 places
of worship and 9,000 priests and was the most generously
supported
of all denominations. The most important positions in the
Orthodox
hierarchy were filled by party nominees, and the church
remained
patently submissive to the regime, even in the face of
repeated
attacks on the most basic religious values and continued
violations
of church rights. Church leaders lauded the "conditions of
religious freedom" that the state had guaranteed them and
were
known to collaborate with the Securitate in silencing
clergymen who
spoke out against the demolition of churches, interference
in
church affairs, and atheistic propaganda in the media.
Data as of July 1989
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