Ministry of Justice to work out simple and coherent procedure for registering religious entities

The authorities do not intend to limit or discriminate anyone, but will try to set clear rules for all the religions, Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase said Tuesday during a roundtable meeting centering on the registration of the religious entities in Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. The meeting held under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice was attended by representatives of religions and human rights NGOs. More such meeting will take place in the future. They aim to identify methods of modifying the legislation, mainly the Law on Religions adopted in 2007, so as to exclude government interference in church activities and ensure the freedom of choosing a religion. Vadim Cheibas, a representative of the Orthodox Moldovan Metropolitan Church, said only one bishopric was registered after the adoption of the mentioned law as the law say that the bishop is named by the religious community. According to him, this fact affects the church hierarchy and the bishop's work. Cheibas also said that the state should not be indifferent to the fact that different religious groups invade Moldova, which is Orthodox by tradition, and the attitude towards the recommendations made by the European Court of Human Rights or other European organizations should be more reserved. On the other hand, the representative of the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church, priest Ioan said the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church, which is also Orthodox, has been registered in Moldova only due to the ECHR's decision. Edgar Vulpe, representative of the Romano-Catholic Bishopric, said there should be more tolerance, stressing that the authorities have not yet defined the principle of church autonomy. Mihail Baglai, the head of the Salvation Army's Charity Mission, said the legislation does not clearly say who names the heads of new religions and contains many other shortcomings. The participants spoke about the danger of extremist and Satanist religious groups entering Moldova and shared the opinion that the religious entities cannot promote ideas that prejudice the common welfare. Deputy Minister of Justice OIeg Efrim expressed readiness to analyze all the proposals that could help work out a simple and coherent procedure for registering religious entities. He voiced hope that the modifications to the legislation will be finalized within half a year.