THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE ROMANIAN CHURCHES ABROAD THE COUNTRY. A VALUABLE SOURCE OF INFORMATION ON THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRATIONS OF OUR FELLOW COUNTRY MEN

The quantification and analysis of international migrations have always represented difficult approaches especially because of the lack of some reliable statistical data. Consequently, alternative sources of information (such as religious institutions and administrative boards of different Christian cults) are not to be neglected. However, from this point of view, significant differentiations can be highlighted: the Catholic Church has always been keen on good quality statistical registrations (more or less Neoprotestant cults fit this pattern, too); in its turn, Orthodoxy tries to catch up on the lost ground by means of a considerable administrative organization. Thus, from the different incidence of religion-triggered emigration to the geographical distribution of the cult edifices abroad the country, the connection between migration and religion is a very powerful one. In this sense, our analysis is meant to spot the most important features of the Romanian diaspora. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]