{"id":530204,"date":"2025-06-11T15:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=530204"},"modified":"2025-06-11T15:48:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T12:48:49","slug":"romania-president-religious-freedom-day-may-16-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/romania-president-religious-freedom-day-may-16-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Romanian President enacts law establishing May 16 as National Day of Religious Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Romanian President Nicu\u0219or Dan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.presidency.ro\/ro\/media\/decrete-si-acte-oficiale\/decrete-semnate-de-presedintele-romaniei-nicusor-dan1749206231\">has signed into law<\/a> a bill establishing the National Day of Religious Freedom and of the Contribution of Religious Communities to Romanian Society, to be celebrated annually on May 16 starting next year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to the new legislation, May 16 will be marked by \u201ccultural-religious and educational events dedicated to religious freedom, relations between the state and religious denominations, partnerships between the state and religious groups, and the contribution of faith communities to the wellbeing of Romanian society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Central and local authorities can partner with religious denominations, associations, and other non-governmental organizations and foundations to organise these events.<\/p>\n<p>The bill was passed by <a href=\"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/romania-religious-freedom-day-may-16-law\/\">Parliament<\/a> last month. May 16 was chosen because on this day in 2000, all officially recognized religious denominations in Romania signed a joint declaration at Snagov supporting Romania\u2019s accession to the EU and NATO.<\/p>\n<h2>Religious Freedom as a Fundamental Right<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cReligious freedom is a right without which we cannot imagine any democratic society. Holding a particular belief or belonging to a religious community are key aspects of exercising this fundamental right,\u201d the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100094443397939\/posts\/572500205908088\/?mibextid=wwXIfr&amp;rdid=3pnG0sCCdVqNXN08\">said<\/a> on June 6.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the same time, celebrating religious freedom is not just a solemn moment for faith communities, but for every person who values the reaffirmation of universal democratic principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Romania\u2019s faith communities proposed the law initiative during their <a href=\"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/government-religious-denominations-consolidate-collaboration-romania-religious-freedom-day\/\">meeting<\/a> on April 10, 2024, with representatives of the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs and other state institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Basilica.ro Files \/ Mircea Florescu<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BasilicaNews\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-495171\" src=\"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/banner-x-en-889x148.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"889\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/banner-x-en-889x148.gif 889w, https:\/\/basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/banner-x-en-1024x171.gif 1024w, https:\/\/basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/banner-x-en-1536x256.gif 1536w, https:\/\/basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/banner-x-en-2048x341.gif 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 440px, (max-width: 768px) 354px, 890px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romanian President Nicu\u0219or Dan has signed into law a bill establishing the National Day of Religious Freedom and of the Contribution of Religious Communities to Romanian Society, to be celebrated annually on May 16 starting next year. According to the new legislation, May 16 will be marked by \u201ccultural-religious and educational events dedicated to religious&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":280679,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22922],"tags":[35259,35260,35261,35258,35088,35262,10704],"class_list":["post-530204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","tag-may-16-romania","tag-national-religious-freedom-day","tag-nicusor-dan-law","tag-romania-religious-freedom","tag-romanian-faith-communities","tag-state-and-religion-romania","tag-state-secretary-for-religious-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}