Cultural Preservation Among Assimilating Moldavian Csángó Communities: Charting the Role of the Catholic Church in Civil Society Activities, Historical Memory, and Identity Preservation

Abstract

The assimilating Moldavian Csángó minority in eastern Romania are characterized by their strong Roman Catholic religion and Hungarian origins, with some Csángós still speaking endangered Hungarian dialects. Despite Roman Catholicism being crucial to Csángó identity, historically, the Roman Catholic Church in Moldavia played a significant role in the Romanianizing assimilation of the Moldavian Csángós. Since 1989, civil society organizations aimed at preservation of Csángó heritage have flowered in Moldavia, organizing wide-ranging cultural programs, Hungarian language education, and creating Hungarian Houses as community centers in Csángó villages, among other activities. It was only recently, arguably in 2019, that the Moldavian Catholic Church began to lessen its longtime national Romanian policy and approach the question of Csángó Hungarian heritage with more openness. The research question of my study, therefore, is to what extent the Moldavian Catholic Church can cooperate more closely with Csángó civil associations on issues of Csángó Hungarian heritage preservation. The experimental methodology of this project is the use of fieldwork interviews conducted in the Moldavian Csángó region of Romania in January 2025. These open-ended interviews focused on individuals at three levels: rural/village (both those involved and not involved in cultural preservation associations), associational (leaders and members of civil cultural associations as well as officials of Churches), and governmental (one Csángó-originating local mayor). I complement analysis of a number of these interviews in my paper with historical, ethnographic, and contemporary-based research on Csángó culture, the Moldavian Catholic Church, and current developments between the civil society and the Church. My conclusions suggest cautious optimism towards the opening of the Church towards heritage preservation but also emphasizes the need for small steps of cooperation between Church and cultural associations.