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The predominance of the Orthodox Church over the last several hundred years, along with its status as the majority religion, has contributed to its reluctance, in particular at the local level, and sometimes with the support of low-level officials, to tolerate other religions. Consequently, actions by other religious groups to attract members frequently are perceived by the Orthodox Church as attempts to diminish the number of its members. Minority religious groups alleged that some members of the Orthodox clergy provoked isolated incidents of organized group intimidation.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints complained of repeated harassment and discrimination against its members, including in the workplace. This included incidents where members were threatened with losing their jobs at work or harassed by colleagues because of their religious affiliation. There were also reported incidents where children were reportedly forced by teachers at school to declare their faith and then were harassed. According to the Church's reports, its missionaries were repeatedly and consistently the subject of harassment and violence. In September 2005, four individuals in Constanta reportedly physically assaulted two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and threatened to kill one them at knifepoint. Police intervened, and one perpetrator was reportedly fined. In November 2005, two Mormon missionaries were physically assaulted in Iasi, Iasi County, by an individual who tried to push them down a flight of stairs and hit one of them with a bottle. The police intervened, and the perpetrator was charged with assault. The court fined the perpetrator and required an official apology. On May 7, 2006, two Mormon missionaries were assaulted and injured by a man in Bucharest. The police fined the individual approximately $70 (ROL 2 million).
The Jehovah's Witnesses continued to allege verbal and physical abuse, in particular by some Orthodox priests, and indifference from some police. In some instances, the priests reportedly had the support of local authorities and the police, such as in Dofteana, Bacau County, where, in 2004, the mayor, apparently under influence of the Orthodox priest, obstructed activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses and warned them to cease their door-to-door ministry. In January and March 2005, the Jehovah's Witnesses were physically assaulted by some residents of Dofteana, and the police did not protect them. On February 4, 2006, two members of the Jehovah's Witnesses were assaulted by an Orthodox priest. When they filed a complaint with the local police, the policemen purportedly warned them to not return to Dofteana.
The Jehovah's Witnesses also reported verbal and physical abuse by an Orthodox priest and two individuals, all of them allegedly drunk, in Focsani, Vrancea County, on August 11, 2005. Police fined the three individuals. Similar alleged physical abuse against a group of Jehovah's Witnesses by an Orthodox priest occurred several times in Breasta, Dolj County, in November and December 2005. Police in Breasta allegedly ignored the complaints filed by the Jehovah's Witnesses.
In February 2006, in Topile, Iasi County, an Orthodox priest and a group of drunk individuals allegedly assaulted with clubs a group of Jehovah's Witnesses. Orthodox priests also physically assaulted members of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Lupcina, Suceava County, on February 25, 2006; in Branesti, Gorj County, on March 26, 2006; and in Cosereni, Ialomita County, on April 2, 2006. Police did not take any measures against the assailants.
In the small town of Mizil, Prahova County, the local Orthodox church reportedly continued a persistent discrediting campaign against a small congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The mayor, along with Orthodox priests and the police, continued an anti-Jehovah's Witnesses campaign that began in 1997 in an attempt to stop the church's activity in Mizil. In 2004, despite repeated complaints filed by the Jehovah's Witnesses, the mayor issued a resolution forbidding any actions of proselytizing. In April 2005, the CNCD reprimanded school authorities and the mayor of Mizil for harassing and discriminating against a Jehovah's Witnesses teacher who was also told by the school director that he would be dismissed. The mayor alleged that the teacher was proselytizing in school and that two school inspectors forced him to choose between his faith and his job. In April 2005, the CNCD also fined the mayor approximately $220 (ROL 6 million) for publishing discriminatory articles against the Jehovah's Witnesses in the city hall's monthly publication. The city hall and the two inspectors challenged the CNCD decisions, and on November 16, 2005, the Mizil court of first instance ruled in their favor based on a procedural flaw and eliminated the fine; however, the CNCD decision of discrimination remained valid.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church reported similar incidents with Orthodox priests in several localities, including Milas, Bistrita Nasaud County, in 2004 and 2005, and other localities with smaller congregations. In Pitesti, Arges County, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had problems for several years with an Orthodox priest who repeatedly took and broke the missionaries' name tags, and destroyed religious pamphlets they were carrying.
The Baptist Church reported that, during the period covered by the report, the Baptist community of Satu Mare and Oradea counties filed a formal complaint regarding a group of individuals who repeatedly disrupted the Baptist religious services in Botiz, Satu Mare County. Local police allegedly did not intervene, claiming they could not take action against the perpetrators in the absence of a specific court order.
The Reformed Church in Oradea repeatedly complained that local authorities incited an interconfessional and interethnic conflict by allocating a sports playground which had, according to the Reformed Church, rightfully belonged to a reformed high school, to a local Orthodox parish in 2004. The local Orthodox parish intensified the conflict by locking up the playground, restricting access to the students, and leaving the high school in a state of de facto limbo. The Reformed Church responded by filing complaints to the local authorities and sponsoring several peaceful protests. The case remained unresolved at the end of the period covered by the report.
Minority religions credibly complained about the intolerant attitude of some Orthodox religion teachers, who in some instances have depicted non-Orthodox churches to students as "sects" and a danger to all who might wish to join them. According to a December 2005 incident reported by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an Orthodox priest threw an Adventist translation of the Bible to the back of the classroom during a religion class in Piatra Neamt, Neamt County, and asked the grade school students to kick it.
In February 2006, Orthodox priests disrupted healthcare events organized by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tarzia-Brusturi, Dragomiresti, and Razboieni, all in Neamt County.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church continued to complain that Orthodox priests allowed the burial of non-Orthodox believers in confessional or even public cemeteries (often treated as confessional by Orthodox priests in rural areas) only in isolated sections of the cemetery or if non-Orthodox religious services were not used. During the reporting period, such incidents were reported in Lipanesti, Prahova County; Jiblea, Valcea County; Cojasca, Dambovita County; Garbesti, Iasi County; and Ceahlau, Neamt County. To avoid such encounters, the Adventist Church asked the mayors' offices several years ago for land for cemeteries in a large number of localities where it had congregations, but it received positive answers to only 13 of its 700 requests. During the reporting period, the Seventh-day Adventist Church received a piece of land for cemetery use in Tecuci, Galati County. Orthodox priests also denied access for Greek Catholics to many cemeteries, such as those in Sapanta, Maramures County; Salva, Bistrita Nasaud County; Lucaceni, Satu Mare County; Pesceana, Valcea County; Ungheni, Mures County; Telec-Bicaz, Neamt County; Damuc, Neamt County; Bicaz-Chei, Neamt County; Magina, Alba County; Radesti, Alba County; and Vintu de Jos, Alba County. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also complained of being constantly denied access to cemeteries.
According to the local Muslim community, Bucharest city hall failed to respond to repeated requests by the Muslim community for land for a Muslim cemetery. This has led to difficulties in locating a proper burial ground for Romanian Muslims. During the period covered by the report, the city hall offered to allocate a plot that was insufficient in size. The Muslim community renewed its request and a decision remained pending. In June 2006, the mufti, official head of the Muslim community, wrote a letter to both the president and the prime minister complaining of the situation.
In January 2005, when a group of villagers, along with the Orthodox priest, switched to the Greek Catholic faith in Pesceana, the village's local council illegally forbade the registration of a Greek Catholic parish and the activities of the Greek Catholic church in the village. Police did not react to the Greek Catholics' complaints of verbal and physical abuse by Orthodox villagers and their priest. The local police chief was subsequently dismissed. An agreement mediated by the state secretary for religious denominations in May 2005 was disregarded by both parties soon after its signature. Following a complaint by a group of NGOs, the CNCD decided that the local council's decisions were discriminatory and reprimanded it at the end of August 2005. Tensions continued, however, during the entire period covered by this report. The situation was aggravated further when the Greek Catholic priest and the church's members were repeatedly denied access to the local cemetery. A court ruling on January 19, 2006, allowing the Greek Catholic priest to enter the cemetery was appealed by the Orthodox Church, and the lawsuit remained ongoing. In April and May 2006, the mayor's office of Pesceana refused to issue a construction permit for a Greek Catholic church, asking the Greek Catholic parish to meet the requirements of Decree 177/1948, the communist religion law. The Greek Catholic Church also complained of the hostile attitude of the prefect of Valcea County toward the Greek Catholic congregation in Pesceana and of the illegal transfer by the local council of two communal cemeteries to the Orthodox Church.
A Greek Catholic Association complained to the minister of the administration and interior of the negative attitude of some prefects-such as those from Valcea and Satu Mare, and the Maramures and Alba counties-towards the Greek Catholic Church.
In January 2006, the decision of more than one hundred people to switch from the Orthodox to the Greek Catholic Church in Stei, Hunedoara County, also generated tensions. The Greek Catholic Church could not obtain possession of the rectory restituted in 2004 because the Orthodox Church appealed a restitution decision that had been in favor of the Greek Catholics. The Greek Catholics were also denied access to the only church in the village, which was Greek Catholic before the communist period. The Greek Catholic Church asked the Secretariat to mediate its dialogue with the Orthodox Church concerning alternative service in the church.
In April 2006, a similar situation occurred in Valea de Jos, Bihor County, when 350 of the approximately 400 villagers, together with the priest, decided to join the Greek Catholic faith and attempted to keep a church they had previously built.
Representatives of minority religions credibly complained that only Orthodox priests grant religious assistance in hospitals, children's homes, and shelters for the elderly. Charitable activities carried out by other churches in children's homes and shelters were often negatively interpreted as proselytizing. In one instance, an Orthodox priest forbade residents of a state-owned orphanage, including some young adults over age eighteen, from attending non-Orthodox religious services unless they were prepared to live elsewhere. He also hindered efforts by religious charities to visit that orphanage. In many cases, minority religions felt compelled to form nonreligious associations in order to gain access to public institutions to carry out charitable activities.
In April 2006, the New Right, an extreme-right xenophobic organization, developed a campaign in Cluj about "the danger" represented by "proselytizing sects." The organization distributed thousands of leaflets and confronted hundreds in an attempt to curb the increasing activity in the country of such "sects" that aimed at "destroying Orthodox Christianity."
Since the dialogue between the Greek Catholic and Orthodox churches came to a halt in 2004, disputes between the two religions' believers over church property increased in intensity. Greek Catholic communities decided, in many cases, to build new churches because of the lack of progress in restituting their properties either through dialogue with the Orthodox Church or in court; however, their efforts were hampered by the Orthodox Church, sometimes with the support of local authorities. In Sapanta, Maramures County, the Greek Catholic Church decided to give up claims for its church and build a new one. For the last three years, however, the local council, under the influence of the Orthodox priest, refused to issue a construction permit. The Greek Catholic Church initiated a lawsuit. Similar tensions continued in Certeze, Satu Mare County, where the Greek Catholic Church was not permitted to build a new church on its land because of obstructions and harassment by the Orthodox Church and local authorities. Tensions continued in localities where the Orthodox Church refused to enforce court rulings that ordered restitution of churches to the Greek Catholic Church: Lupsa in Cluj County and Bogdan Voda in Maramures County were two examples. In Bogdan Voda, Maramures County, the Orthodox priest consistently refused to hand over the church that the Greek Catholic Church won in court in 2000.
In Prunis, Cluj County, where most of the residents belong to the Greek Catholic Church, tensions continued because of a long-standing lawsuit.
In Ardud, Satu Mare County, the Greek Catholic Church, which previously had owned the only church in the locality, built a new church to put an end to the long-standing conflict. However, the Orthodox Church took legal action and evicted the Greek Catholic priest (who had been an Orthodox priest) from the parish house in 2003 in the presence of numerous gendarmes and police. The Orthodox Church refused the Greek Catholics' proposal to help buy a new house for the Orthodox priest. During the period covered by this report, tensions came to an end in Ardud after the construction of a new house by the Greek Catholic Church for its priest.
In most localities with two churches (one of which had belonged to the Greek Catholic Church) and only one Orthodox priest, priests frequently do one of three things: hold alternate religious services between the two locations, keep the Orthodox church locked and hold the services in the former Greek Catholic churches, or establish a second Orthodox parish in the locality. However, more than eighteen former Greek Catholic churches remained closed.
On February 17, 2006, in Satu Mare, after sixteen years of lawsuits and delays, authorities enforced a ruling restituting a cathedral to the Greek Catholic Church.
In Dumbraveni, Sibiu County, the Orthodox Church continued to refuse to enforce a previous court ruling to share a local church with the Greek Catholic Church. Although the Orthodox Church promised to return the Greek Catholic church after it completed the construction of a new Orthodox church, it refused to do so after the construction was over.
*** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 2% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.doilasuta.ro ***
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