Romania

Romania is considering a bill which would expropriate the property of minority religious communities in favor of the majority religion.

New law contains concerning provisions such as granting different levels of legal recognition for religious communities and a new ban on "religious defamation," which could be used to silence free religious discussion.

After Justinian’s passing in 1977, Father Calciu again became a target of the communist regime. In 1978 after initiating a series of sermons addressing religious persecution under Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu

Religion Law, shrouded in suspicion, was rushed through the Member of the Chamber of Deputies faster than permitted under governmental procedures.

"Somehow, religious freedom has ended up being the tombstone of the nascent Romanian democracy."

New law on religious freedom in Romania may restrict religious-based speech of Christians and vaguely defined "aggressive proselytizing."

There is concern about a draft law's three-tier system of state recognition and the privileges it gives the highest status religious communities, the difficulty for religious communities with the lesser status of "religious association" from being recognised as a denomination (they need to show continuous existence of 12 years and have 22,000 adult citizen members), as well as the undefined powers which the draft law gives the state over religious communities.

People's hunger for the bread of God could not be quashed, not even when the church was brutally repressed from 1948 to 1990 by the communists, Archbishop Muresan said.

State power and granting of status to religious communities concerns minority Christian and other religious groups.

Romanian religious minorities and human rights groups have told Forum 18 News Service of their alarm about both the current draft of a new religion law and it being sent to parliament under "emergency procedures."

Proposed law prevents religious associations of 300 people or less from gaining legal status to purchase property, build churches or pay pastors.