Old and new obstacles” “

In the countries of Eastern Europe, the scope granted to religious communities by the heirs of State communist atheism (with the conspicuous exception of Belarus) is growing; the larger of these communities are recognized as “traditional religions, i.e. belonging to the history and culture of the country”. In Western Europe, on the other hand, dialogue is being fostered between the traditional religions and those spread in the West following the immigration especially of Islamic populations. At the same time the debate is being re-ignited on the balance between the secular State and respect for religious principles. These contrasts emerge from the 2004 Report on religious liberty in the world published by ACS (Aid to the suffering church). A total of 135 countries throughout the world benefited in 2003 from the 55 million euros made available by ACS in its various sectors of intervention – ranging from aid to church buildings to means of communication and theological formation. The donor countries include 12 European states. Below we give some details of the situation of religious freedom in the various countries of the European continent, as documented in the ACS Report. BELARUS. The strongly authoritarian regime of President Alyaksandr Lukashenko has introduced a series of legislative and bureaucratic obstacles that make religious activity legitimate, but practically impossible to practice for many minority religious communities, especially due to the rejection of applications for state registration, the ban on unregistered communities meeting regularly in the same house, the curbs on religious events celebrated in public places, and the refusal to grant authorization to construct, purchase or rent premises for religious purposes. The Orthodox Church enjoys prerogatives denied to the other religious groups, also because it is considered fundamental for achieving the government’s geopolitical interests, first and foremost its rapprochement with Russia. At the present time, access to the various state sectors is precluded to the other religions – including those recognized as traditional religions in the law of 2002 – such as Catholicism, Islamism, Judaism and Lutheranism. Operating amid various difficulties, the Catholic Church is forced to live on the margins of legality. BULGARIA. Not only the Orthodox Church – to which the law on religions approved in December 2002 grants certain privileges since it is representative of the majority of the country’s almost 8 million inhabitants -, but also the Catholic, Moslem and Jewish communities, are recognized as traditional religions, i.e. belonging to the history and culture of the nation. According to the law of 2002, however, all the religious communities – with the exception of the Orthodox Church – have the legal obligation to register with the municipal court of Sofia as a necessary precondition for being recognized by the State and being able publicly to profess their faith: a provision that has aroused the protests of various religious communities and, in particular, that of Muslims. FRANCIA. “Compromise in the French style: that’s how the archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger defined the fragile balance on which, in his view, France has been supported by the laws of separation between State and Church from 1905 to the present day. At the same time Cardinal Lustiger has expressed his opposition to the recent law against the ‘ostentatious’ use of religious symbols in schools, at the centre of a heated cultural and religious debate in France ever since 2003. The ban on the display of religious symbols in schools originated in this cultural context in defence of secularism, that has been the principle of the Republic ever since 1789 and that was reaffirmed by the law of 1905, whose centenary will be celebrated next year. GERMANY. At the present time over 3 million Muslims are living in Germany, of whom 800,000 children and teenagers below the age of 18, double the figure in 1987. Of these Muslims, 75% are of Turkish origin. Last September the German Episcopal Conference published a 278-page document on religious liberty and, in particular, on the relations between Christians and Muslims in a constitutional state. The aim of the document – with the title “Christians and followers of Islam in Germany “ – is informative: to describe the quantitative presence of Islam in the country and the doctrinal and organizational characteristics of the various Moslem environments, with a view to fostering in Catholics a greater awareness of their particular identity, a prerequisite considered essential for any form of peaceful co-existence. After a comparative analysis between Islam and Christianity, the document, in its third part, tackles the problem of respect for religious liberty. The problems that derive from co-existence are rehearsed, especially the respect for the law of the State that is required of all citizens and the relation of Muslims with the shari’a (Islamic law). Other aspects discussed by the document concern the opening of mosques, which are often not merely places of prayer, Moslem diet, the family, burial rites and the role of women in the family context. ITALY. In Italy too the problem is felt of how to relate to the religions to which the numerous immigrants belong and especially to Islam. The highpoint of the debate occurred last October following the legal action brought by an Italian citizen of Islamic religion, Adel Smith, who requested the removal of the crucifix from the elementary school attended by his own children at Ofena (province of Aquila). This gave rise to various demonstrations in defence of the Italian identity founded on Catholicism. CZECH REPUBLIC. On 21 May Parliament failed to ratify the accord between State and Holy See signed on 25 July 2002. The 110 deputies out of 177 who voted against the accord belonged to the Communist party reconstituted after the fall of the former regime, to the Democratic Civic party of conservative inspiration and to the Social-Democratic party, which is the party now in power. RUSSIA. A careful analysis of the improvement in respect for religious liberty (various projects for the introduction of religious education in schools are also being discussed) suggests, according to several observers, that the administration of President Putin is engaged in the attempt to involve the Church in political projects on a grand scale (e.g. the process of reunion with the “Russian Orthodox Church abroad”, which has its faithful mainly among Russian emigrants in the USA, or the rapprochement with the Ukraine). The efforts of the leaders of the religious groups recognized as “traditional” in Russia, i.e. the Orthodoxy, Islamism, Buddhism and Judaism, in the effort to consolidate their position in the State, have obtained the setting up of a parliamentary Commission “in support of traditional spiritual and moral values”. During the present year, some visits to Russia, of which the most important was that made in February 2004 by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, represent a step forward in the dialogue between Holy See and Patriarchate of Moscow. The creation of a Catholic-Orthodox bilateral Commission, established with the aim of tackling the thorniest questions, is seen as positive. SERBIA. In Kosovo, the autonomous province of Serbia still being administered by the UNO and still under the protection of the KFOR international military force, the tension between Serb minority and Albanian majority generally decreased in the course of 2003, even though it briefly re-exploded in March 2004. According to sources of the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees), after the end of the NATO bombardments, in June 1999, some 500,000 Albanians returned to Kosovo, while some 200,000 of the 300,000 Serbs of the years of Miloševiæ went into exile. Of these, 7,531 refugees have since returned. The Serbs are especially concentrated in the central zone of Kosovo – that of the Orthodox monasteries, considered sacred by the Serb nation – and the government of Belgrade pays a subsidy of 80 euros to each on condition that they do not leave the region. It is especially the Serb and Orthodox minority that is the victim of acts of violence. SLOVENIA. There are 34 registered religious communities in the country; the last to be recognized, in August 2003, was the Hindu community, while seven other groups – mainly new religious movements – are awaiting registration. SPAIN. The installation of the new government headed by Rodriguez Zapatero has blocked the reform on the teaching of Catholic religion in public schools, sanctioned by the decree of June 2003 of the outgoing government of José Maria Aznar. Students would have been able to choose between the teaching of Catholic religion and “non confessional” courses of history of religions which would have been taught by teachers of history of philosophy chosen by the State. The reform, that made provision for three hours of religious education and history of religions per week, had aroused a good of protest among the political forces of the left. SWEDEN. Although the Constitution prescribes that the king of Sweden shall be of Lutheran religion, a law in force since January 2000 has substantially relaxed the close link between the Lutheran Church and the State that has always distinguished Church-State relations in the country. TURKEY. A consequence of the alleviation of the tension between religious communities and Turkish government, which is committed – also following the requests of the EU with a view to Turkey’s bid for membership – to the approval of a series of legislative amendments aimed at reinforcing respect for human rights and personal liberties, is the formal authorization of the re-opening of the Greek-Orthodox seminary at Halki, close to Istanbul, closed since 1971. Nonetheless, the steps that still need to be taken are considerable and complex, both because the secular Constitution, a legacy of the 1920s, though it has since been amended, imposes on the institutions an attitude of great detachment from religion, and because the religious overtures being made by the moderate Islamic Party (AKP) now in government seem to have a hidden agenda: that of achieving greater scope for the majority Islamic community.