Maniu and many other PNR leaders belonged to a religious minority, namely the Greek Catholic Church.In 1914, 13 out of 38 members of the PNR Central Electoral Committee were Catholics. See The Structure of the Central Electoral Committees of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and Hungary (1881–1918), originally published by Babeș-Bolyai University's Elite Research project Sometimes chided by its bishops for favoring the predominant Eastern Orthodoxy,Lucian Turcu, "How Did Baia Mare Become the See of the Greek-Catholic Bishopric of Maramureș?", in Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Historia, Vol. 57, Issue 2, December 2012, pp. 105–106 the PNȚ was still described by missionary priest Rafael Friedrich as "closest to the Catholic Church". The party mainstream stood by the promise of corporate rights for ethnic minorities, all of which would have found their place in the agrarianist state.Dobrescu (2003), p. 356; Harre, p. 72; Heinen, p. 113; Ilincioiu, p. 27. See also Zarojanu, p. 13 As noted by Harre, this goal, "as well as the demand for a democratization and decentralization of the country might have calmed down many ethnic conflicts during the interwar period." In addition to sealing pacts with the minority parties, the PNȚ ran openly non-Romanian candidates on its lists; examples include Jews Tivadar Fischer,Moisa (2017), p. 213 Mayer EbnerFlorin C. Stan, "Relațiile bilaterale România—Israel (1948–1959). O cronologie", in Caiete Diplomatice, Vol. 2, Issue 2, 2014, p. 26 and Salomon Kinsbrunner, as well as Constantin Krakalia and Volodymyr Zalozetsky-Sas, who were Ukrainian.Mihai, passim A Jewish steel magnate, Max Auschnitt, financed PNȚ projects both in interwar Romania and in exile.Hazard, p. 56
