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US Department of State Report on religious freedom in Romania
The annual report of the US Department of State on religious freedom in the world in 2017 refers, in the section concerning Romania, to the slow pace of restitution of confiscated religious properties, the need to fully know about the Holocaust and the extensive teaching about it, as well as discrimination complaints of minority religious groups versus the Romanian Orthodox Church.
In the report about Romania, which covers January 1- December 31, 2017, we read that the Romanian government approved the recognition of several religious groups as religious associations, but rejected the demands made by others. Minority religious groups continued to object towards the juridical inclusion of religious organizations.
According to the document, there have been reports about the slow rate of returning confiscated properties, especially from the Greek Catholic Church and the Jewish community, while the number of decisions made by agencies and courts about property restitution remained low.
The names of streets, organizations, schools and libraries given after persons sentenced for Nazi war crimes or crimes against humanity continued, according to the report made by the US Department of State.
At the same time, accusations for antisemitic discourse and Holocaust denial are rare, while teaching about Holocaust remained optional in schools. However, government leaders continued to pronounce against antisemitism and the government transferred a property to Elie Wiesel Institute for the setting up of a museum of Jeweish history in Romania.
The Report refers to the demographic situation and the religious structure of the population in Romania. The US government estimates that in July 2017, the country had a population fo 21.7 million inhabitants. According to the census of 2011, 86.5% of the population declared to be Christian Orthodox, Roman Catholics representing 5%. According to the census, there are about 151,000 Greek Catholics in Romania, even though they say they are 488,000. The report also mentions that other religious groups are old style Christians, protestants, including reformed protestants, Pentecostal, baptists, adventists and others - Jews, Muslims, Jehovah s witnesses, Bah adepts, Mormons, Buddhists, Unitarian Church adepts, members of the International Society for Krishna Conscience. Atheists and persons without religion represent less than 1% of the population, the same document shows.