A vexatious act

The draft-bill submitted to the Juridical Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania’s Parliament on January 27-29 is a “blatantly vexatious act” that “despitefully discriminates” Romania’s Greek-Catholic Church, state priests and faithful of Romania’s Greek-Catholic Church in a communiqué. “This draft-bill represents a definitive – and unprecedented – ratification of the tragic 358 Decree of December 1st 1948 whereby the Communist regime stripped our Church united with Rome of its right to exist, appropriating itself of all personal and income property”, states the communiqué. This martyr church was victim of the Communist regime “which for many years” imprisoned all the priests and bishops “who refused to relinquish their faith and their communion with the Church of Rome”. In a letter to the President of Romania and to the Prime Minister of Romania’s government, His Beatitude Major Archbishop Lucian Muresan, expressed his consternation for the “ungrounded” draft bill whose formulation “is unjust” in the framework of “a Constitutional State”, and requested its removal. In these days Romania’s Greek-Catholic Church undertook a series of initiatives to inform national public opinion, that include letters to the Italian bishops, to the Embassies of Romania to the Italian State and to the Holy See. “We appeal to Italy’s ecclesial communities to manifest their vicinity and communion with their sister Church in all possible ways”, states the annexed press release. The draft bill. Point 6 of January 27-29 2009’s agenda of the juridical, discipline and immunity Commission of the Chamber of Deputies refers to: “The Draft Bill 368/2007 regarding the juridical regime of personal properties of Orthodox and Greek-Catholic religious in Romania” submitted by MPs Daniel Buda, Ioan Oltean and Augustin Zegrean in 2007. Art. 2 states, for example, that “the sacred property – the places of worship, the parish house, the cemetery and related grounds – of monasteries and parish communities of both congregations, with legal personality, belong to the majority religion”. The petition of archbishop Lucian Muresan. His Beatitude Lucian Muresan, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Church united with Rome, voiced his opposition to the draft-bill. In a letter of protest to the President of Romania Traian Basescu and to Prime Minister Emil Boc, the archbishop wrote: “We express our consternation to the fact that this draft-bill has been conceived in the year 2009 which in concrete terms envisages the State’s suppression of Romania’s Greek-Catholic Church. Throughout the centuries Romania’s Greek-Catholic Church United with Rome was the altar that voiced the rights of the Romanian people and during the Communist period it bravely acted as the repository of faith at all costs. Today, in a united Europe, along with the other cults of Romania, it has the right to its free existence and to equal treatment on the part of Romania’s State. We therefore request the cancellation of this draft-bill, that prejudices our Church both morally and materially, and violates the constitutional rights of Greek-Catholic faithful. The Romanian State, the successor of the Communist State of 1948, has the moral obligation to return all confiscated property to the Church. We are only asking for what we have a right to possess in compliance with the provisions of Romania’s Constitution and international legislation”.An appeal to Italian bishops. Romania’s bishops of the Greek-Catholic Church called for Italian bishops’ “vicinity and solidarity”. Since if the draft-bill were approved, “the Greek-Catholic Church United with Rome would be excluded from the restitutions under way and – having been decimated by long-lasting persecution – it would be expropriated of its properties due to its minority status”. “The fact that such a draft bill has been considered for parliamentary debate is unconceivable, while the European Union is concretely committed in the juridical protection of minorities”. In a message to Romania’s ambassador to the Holy See the bishops declared: “It is our belief that the draft bill in exam is a threat to the peaceful coexistence of Romania’s population and a denigration of Romania whose image in the world would thus be defamed with negative repercussions on Romanian immigrants living in Catholic-majority countries”.