contacts between the Roman Catholic Church and the Romanian
government in an effort to reach a satisfactory agreement that would
normalize the position of the church in the country. Additional
government effort to reach an accommodation with the church has been
demonstrated by the appropriation of funds for the restoration of the
historic cathedral of Alba-Iulia. Other denominations had been receiving
regular funds for the maintenance and restoration of religious buildings
of historic or artistic significance, but the Roman Catholic Church had
been denied such funds until 1967. In 1972 contacts between Romania and
the Holy See, which had begun in 1967, were continuing. Several meetings
had taken place between the Romanian Orthodox patriarch, Justinian, and
Cardinal Koenig, who heads the Vatican secretariat for nonbelievers. No
agreement legalizing the position of the Roman Catholic Church in
Romania has been reached, however.

The government promoted the creation of the Catholic Church of Romania,
which was formed in 1951. It is administratively independent of the pope
and recognizes the supremacy of the state over church affairs. Legal
justification for the move was found in a statute passed in Transylvania
in the seventeenth century that placed the conduct of Catholic church
affairs in the hands of clergy and laymen directly subordinate to the
pope in order to preserve the church from engulfment by the
Reformation. In early 1972 the Catholic Church of Romania was headed by
a council composed of both lay and clerical members. It recognized the
pope as supreme authority on matters of faith, morals, and dogma but
rejected any organizational connection with the Holy See.

PROTESTANT CHURCHES

Protestantism is closely identified with the Hungarian and German
minorities of Transylvania. Although the churches themselves have
refrained from any political activity on behalf of the minorities, their
ethnic composition has made them politically significant at times. The
Protestant population, estimated at about 1.2 million in 1950, was
divided into Calvinist, Lutheran, Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist,
Evangelical, and Pentecostal churches.

The largest Protestant denomination is the Reformed (Calvinist) Church,
with a membership estimated at 780,000 in 1950. The membership of this
church is almost entirely Hungarian, and its center is at Cluj, a
Calvinist stronghold since the Reformation. Most of the Hungarian
aristocracy