Religion And Violence In Romania: The Impact Of Secularization On Interreligious Conflicts

The analysis examines the trajectories of violence among religious groups in Romania, focusing on conflicts between Orthodox and Greek Catholic communities and between Orthodox and neo-Protestant communities. Forms of verbal, psychological, physical, and spiritual violence were tracked based on definitions provided by Romanian legislation. The research hypothesis posits that the intensification of secularization and anticlericalism has contributed to the reduction of violence between Orthodox and Greek Catholic/neo-Protestant communities in Romania from 1990 to 2023.In Orthodox-Greek Catholic conflicts, the central issue is patrimonial, while tensions between Orthodox and neo-Protestant communities stem primarily from proselytism and the migration of believers. Notable reductions in violence are observed, particularly after 2007, when secularization and anticlericalism became common adversaries for religious groups. The study analyzed all U.S. Department of State Reports on Religious Freedom in Romania, reports by the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs, Synodal reports of the Romanian Orthodox Church, all issues of Vestitorul Ortodoxiei and Biserica Ortodoxă Română[1], as well as 112 articles on religious conflicts from local and national media from 1990 to 2023. Numerous semi-structured interviews were conducted with Baptist, Adventist and Pentecostal pastors, between October 2023 and March 2024.