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Posted by N Sofia, December 17 (BTA) - The Director of Religious Affairs Ivan Zhelev believes that Parliament has not expected a better bill on religious affairs than the one that is being discussed now. "The bill has a new democratic spirit and if it goes forward, it will be among the leading laws in Europe," Zhelev said. According to Zhelev, the bills' controversial Article 11, describing Orthodox Christianity as the traditional religion in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as a juristic person, aims to bridge the rift in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. He does not think that the law gives any special power to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church other than recognizing it, but "it is a national institution mentioned in the Constitution". According to him, Art. 11 seeks to end the division in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the misuse of its property. "It is not about the personality of Patriarch Maksim. I am not his advocate, but an advocate of order in the church," Zhelev said. He also said he hopes that the opposition United Democratic Forces (UtdDF) will refer the case to the Constitutional Court as they have threatened to do, and that the Court will find nothing wrong in the bill. The new bill requires religious denominations to register with the Sofia City Court, and not with the Directorate of Religious Affairs as is the established practice. None of the 35 registered religious denominations will have to re-register as the Directorate will be required to hand over the documents to the Sofia City Court. All other denominations will have registration equally with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The bill also deals with the return of property to the church, which is an important issue, especially for the bigger churches, said Zhelev. The parliamentary committee on religious affairs has not taken any decision to send the bill for opinion to Brussels or Strasbourg and Zhelev sees no reason to do that. He added that the bill complies with the requirements of the European organizations and reflects recommendations made for earlier drafts. Zhelev believes that the least painful way of overcoming the rift in the church is to repeal the 1992 decision of the court that declared void the registration of Patriarch Maksim. According to him, the Court had political consideration for taking that decision. It has left no other option for solving the problem than the judicial and the matter will surely be taken to court, he said. In a statement received at BTA, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church says that the proposed bill on religious denominations is fully in the spirit of the Constitution and the international standards. The statement is signed by the Synod members and Patriarch Maksim. The Synod believe that the new law will set in place clear rules and guarantees for freedom and autonomy of all religious denominations and will end the government interference in the life of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. "The law is based on the democratic and humanistic principles and gives the due to the natural rights of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church which has for centuries legitimized Bulgarian statehood," the statement goes. It goes on to say that the bill does not discriminate against any denomination or favour the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - it merely recognizes its 12-century existence and develops further the constitutional formulation of traditional religion. The Synod warn that if what they describe as "aggression against Orthodoxy and the Holy Church" escalates, they will use all their international prestige and will alert the other Orthodox Churches, diplomatic missions in Bulgaria, international organizations and the European Union. They go on to call the attacks against the bill "unprecedented discrimination and humiliation of the religious feelings of the 85% majority of Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria". In an act of protest against the proposed bill, the alternative Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Innokentii of Sofia, has sent a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Metropolitan Innokentii told a news conference Monday. He said that their complaint is also against the refusal of three consecutive governments - of socialist Zhan Videnov, of UDF's Ivan Kostov and of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to register the alternative synod.
on December 18, 2002, 9:51:12
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