In an address initiated by the Romanian Patriarchate, thirteen representatives of religious denominations in Romania requested the inclusion of Religion in the list of subjects for which the Baccalaureate exam can be taken. The signatories also demand the removal from the new draft Law on pre-university education of some provisions related to the new ideologies.

Religion as a school subject is “one of the few that is studied throughout pre-university education and the only one that has been validated by the overwhelming majority of parents,” the address states.

Therefore, the inclusion of the subject in the list of options for taking the Baccalaureate exam will prove “the non-discrimination of Religion in relation to other school subjects in the common core” and will allow students to capitalize and verify their acquired skills, Romania’s religious leaders wrote to the Minister of Education Ligia Deca.

“Religion is a subject like any other and can be included among the subjects of the Baccalaureate exam, as it was in pre-communist Romania, as it is in many of the EU countries,” the spokesperson of the Romanian Patriarchate, Vasile Banescu, commented.

Education without ideology

The document also includes a series of corrections regarding the organization of religious education, as well as the requirement to remove from the Pre-University Education Law the definition of “diversity”, the article regarding the obligation to promote “diversity” in school and the phrase regarding “sexual orientation” – “according to the principle of independence from any form of ideology.”

“Public education in Romania should remain totally protected from any form of ideology,” Spokesperson Vasile Bănescu added.

“The study of the Religion accepted by the state does not constitute such a form since the Christian Religion is the real foundation of the European humanist culture and must be understood as such in the school. European science itself sprouted not in spite of Christianity, but even in its soil, thanks to it”, explained the spokesperson of the Romanian Patriarchate.

The address was signed by Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Daniel, who was joined by the representatives of the following denominations in Romania: the Roman Catholic Church; Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic; Armenian Church; Reformed Church; Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession; Evangelical Lutheran Church; Hungarian Unitarian Church; Baptist Christian Cult; Christian Church according to the Gospel; Pentecostal Union of Romania; Seventh-day Adventist Church; The Muslim Cult.

Photo source: Facebook / Daniela Ceredeev