Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Religion, Politics and Sexuality in Romania

2005; Routledge; Volume: 57; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09668130500051924

1465-3427

Lucian Turcescu, Lavinia Stan,

Religion and Society Interactions

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes We would like to thank Caroline Ely for her comments on an earlier draft of this article. All errors of interpretation are ours. Research for this article was generously funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada standard research grant. Paul Goma, Culoarea curcubeului '77 (Chisinau, Moldova, Flux, 2003), pp. 172, 185. Homosexuality and abortion were discussed in Lavinia Stan & Lucian Turcescu, 'The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratisation', Europe-Asia Studies, 52, 8, December 2000, pp. 1467 – 1488. BBC Romanian Service, 20 December 2001. The decision is available on the Constitutional Court website, www.ccr.ro. Christian Democrat deputy Emil Popescu, quoted in Human Rights Watch and International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Public Scandals: Sexual Orientation and Criminal Law in Romania (New York, HRW and IGLHRC, 1998). Monitorul, 8 May 1998. Reuters, 13 September 2000. Central Europe Review, 18 September 2000. Canons 7 and 62 of Basil of Caesarea, in Philip Schaff & Henry Wace (eds), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Peabody, Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), pp. 604 and 608. Nicolae Steinhardt, Jurnalul fericirii (The Journal of Happiness) (Cluj-Napoca, Dacia, 1991). Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, 'The Ruler and the Patriarch: The Romanian Eastern Orthodox Church in Transition', East European Constitutional Review, 7, 2, Spring 1998, http://www.law.nyu.edu/eecr/vol7num2. Monitorul, 14 May 1998. BBC Romanian Service, 20 December 2001. Evenimentul Zilei, 15 May 1998. Evenimentul Zilei, 16 April 1998. Evenimentul Zilei, 4 September 2000. Evenimentul Zilei, 9 September 2000. 22, 3 – 9 March 1998. Monitorul, 20 June 2000. Quoted in Public Scandals, chapter 4.1. Evenimentul Zilei, 15 May 1998. Cotidianul, 26 September 2001. Evenimentul Zilei, 29 August 2000. For membership figures see the 2002 census, www.insse.ro/rpl2002rezgen/16.pdf. BBC Romanian Service, 20 December 2001. The pre-eminent book on reproduction in Romania is Gail Kligman, The Politics of Duplicity. Controlling Reproduction in Ceausescu's Romania (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1998). Cf. John Luxmoore, 'Eastern Europe 1995: a Review of Religious Life in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland', Religion, State and Society, 24, 4, 1996, p. 363, and Sunday Herald, 9 February 2003. Ziua, 9 February 2004. Sunday Herald, 9 February 2003. Another study showed that the total induced abortion rate doubled from 1.7 lifetime abortions per woman in 1987 – 90 to 3.4 in 1990 – 3. The largest increase in abortion occurred among 15 – 19 years olds, women with only primary school education, Bucharest residents and women with low socioeconomic status. Some 67% of abortions were performed to limit or space births, 20% for socioeconomic reasons, 4% for reasons related to the woman's relationship with her partner and another 4% for health reasons; see Lisa Remez, 'Romanian Maternal Death Rate Fell by Two-Thirds after the 1989 Revolution', Family Planning Perspectives, 27, 6, November 1995, p. 263. Monitorul Oficial al Romaniei, partea a II-a, 27 January 1994. National Catholic Reporter, 30, 13, 28 January 1994, p. 4. Sunday Herald, 9 February 2003. Telegraful de Constanta, 9 June 2003. Ilie Moldovan, Darul sfint al vietii si combaterea pacatelor impotriva acestuia – – Aspecte ale nasterii de prunci in lumina moralei crestine ortodoxe (Bucharest, 1997). This pamphlet is the only viewpoint on abortion and contraception to meet with the tacit approval of the Orthodox church, and to be distributed to priests. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (London, 1999), entries 2368 and 2370; also Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae 16. See Schaff & Wace (eds), The Seven Ecumenical Councils, pp. 73 and 404. Monitorul, 9 October 2003. 22, 3 – 9 March 1998. Dilema, 5 – 11 March 1999. 22, 3 – 9 March 1998. Cotidianul, 26 September 2001, and Telegraful de Constanta, 12 May 2003. Cotidianul, 14 November 2001. Monitorul, 1 January 1998. Evenimentul Zilei, 4 May 2001. Curentul and Adevarul, 27 November 2003. Summary of the Chamber of Deputies session of 12 February 2002, Monitorul Oficial al Romaniei, partea a II-a. Monitorul and Curentul, 9 October 2003. See Exodus, 20.14 and 20.17, and I Corinthians, 6, 9 – 10. A transcript of the roundtable is available at www.czc.go.ro/prostitutia.html. Evenimentul Zilei, 4 May 2001. BBC Romanian Service and Monitorul, 13 November 2003. Adevarul, 18 February 2004. Evenimentul Zilei, 14 October 2000. Associated Press, 17 April 2003. The canon rule reads that the marital status at the time of ordination must be preserved afterwards. This prompts many Orthodox and Greek Catholic seminary and university students to seek marriage before graduation and ordination as priests. Priests who are celibate at the time of ordination are not allowed ever to marry. Evenimentul Zilei, 9 November 2001. Ziua, 13 March 2003. Evenimentul Zilei, 27 June 2001, and Replica, 20 August 2003.