Catolici și ortodocși în Moldova: aspecte ideologice și sociale în sate mixte confesional Catholic and Orthodox Christians in Moldavia: Ideological and Social Issues in Villages with Mixed Religious Confessions Section Studies and Research Papers

Abstract

The aim of the article is to investigate the relationships of the Catholic and Orthodox populations living together in two villages from Bacãu County. In any case, the approach does not exhaust the topic. It focuses instead on the matrimonial dimensions. In this vein, I am trying to test the hypothesis that Catholics from Moldova constitute a specific community and their cohesion roots mainly in the confessional belonging. The ideological biases often taint the ways to step closer to the Moldavian Catholics (Csangos). In the first part of the article, by making an overview of the works linked to this topic, as well as a short report of how the first contacts in the villages took place, I pinpoint these biases. Further, in the second part, I put down the statistics of the exogamy both at the level of the confessional groups and the whole villages. With a special concern, it unfolds the analysis of the exogamic map in the decades of the 20th century. In the ending part, I try to make tighter the data interpretation. The statistics previously put down are seen here in the frame of the local rules regarding mixed marriages.