Parliament votes to declare January 13 day of religious freedom

Lawmakers on Tuesday voted to declare January 13 the day of religious freedom to mark the anniversary of the Torda Edict, the very first law to declare freedom of religion.

The motion was approved unanimously with 142 votes.

The law states that the right to religious freedom as declared in the Torda Edict can be considered a precursor to modern democracy and a fundamental value of Christian Europe.

The law will come into effect the day after its publication.

Convened in 1568, the Diet of Torda (now Turda in Romania) issued an edict also known as Patent of Toleration as an early attempt to guarantee religious freedom in Christian Europe. Seen as a brave move toward religious toleration and a direct renunciation of national establishment of a single religion, the Edict of Torda legally applied to Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and Unitarians.

Source: MTI