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THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE ROMANIAN PATRIARCHATE informs us:The daily newspaper Financiarul of 20 July 2010 published the article entitled The Church and the other religious cults represent a true fiscal paradise , signed by Mr. Oleg Cojocaru, in which the opinions of the representatives of the Secular Humanist Association of Romania (ASUR) are mentioned. Taking into account the opinions the representatives of the Association expressed, the Romanian Patriarchate thinks some explanations are necessary: 1. The support the Government grants to the religious cults from the public budget is a consequence of the secularisation of the church estates by the state during the rule of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1863). Since then, some of the Church expenses (salaries, repairs, constructions) have been taken over by the Romanian state as a material compensation for the properties taken over, about 25% of the agricultural and forest surface of Wallachia and Moldova. This support continued to be granted during the communist regime too due to the obligation the state assumed as far back as 1863. A possible cessation of the state support to the Romanian Orthodox Church and other religious cults should be naturally followed by a restitution of all the church estates confiscated, but which have been used, in the meantime, for the successive appropriations of the poor population. Moreover, the public money offered to the religious cults comes from contributors who are Christian Orthodox in their majority. It should be also noted that: in 2010, the state budget of the Government has not granted any money for other activities of the Church besides the salaries of the religious cults staff .2. At the same time, the contribution to the priests’ salaries from the state budget (cca 65% of the salary of a high school teacher, with the rest of the salary completed from the funds of the parish) is not made out of pity, but as a recognition of the religious cults’ contribution to the life of the Romanian society . According to Bill 489/2006 concerning the religious freedom and the general regime of the religious cults, the Romanian state recognises the spiritual, educational, social-charitable, cultural role of the religious cults, as well as social partnership, their statute of factors of social peace, as well as the important role of the Romanian Orthodox Church and of the other Churches and religious cults recognised in the national history of Romania and in the life of the Romanian society (article 7, paragraph 1 and 2). This is why the assistance granted by the state is very important for the poor parishes, which cannot financially contribute to the salary of the priest with only old people and children remained among the parishioners because of migration.3. Due to the juridical statutes of the religious cults as units of private right but of public utility, they develop many social activities, so that the exemption of fees is a must. So, this exemption is clearly conditioned by the use of the funds got from the donations of the faithful and from economical activities (making and selling candles, calendars, religious books, church wine and other church objects) used for well defined purposes, namely maintenance and operation of the religious units (payment of the electricity, water and gas bills, etc.), for constructing, repairing and consolidating the places of worship and the ecclesiastic buildings, for education, for providing individually and/or in partnership the social services accredited in legal conditions, for specific and non-profit activities of the religious cults, according to Bill no. 489/2006 concerning the religious freedom and the general regime of the cults (according to Article 15 paragraph 1, letter f of the Fiscal Code). In this sense, we inform the ASUR representatives, as well as other people with the same spirit, that the situation in Romania resembles the statutes of the cults in other European countries, of which we mention France, where in spite of the prevailing lay character of the state, this one contributes financially to the restoration and maintenance of the places of worship historical monuments, as well as to the social-charitable and cultural activity of the religious cults in accordance with a special law. Moreover, they do not pay taxes on buildings. In some other European countries too - Germany, Spain, Italy – the state authorities support the activity of the religious cults by assigning a percentage of the salaries tax or income to the religious cults officially recognised. As for the tax exemption, we mention that, in Romania, the NGO-s, as well as the one mentioned above, enjoy some reduced tax exemptions. The assertion of the ASUR representatives, according to which, due to the government measures designed to reduce the budgetary salaries, the staff of the religious cults were not affected in any way, but even enjoy some salary increase is a dishonouring misinformation of the public opinion, a shocking lie aimed at instigating some other social-professional categories against the cults staff . The representatives of the ASUR hide the fact that according to the Bill concerning the establishment of the budgetary balance (art. 15,1), the quantum of the state support to the salaries of the clergy and non-clergy personnel was reduced with 25, so that this fact had dramatic social consequences for a large part of the priests and of the other lay employees who operate in the parishes in the rural environment, where it is very difficult to complete the salaries from church income due to poverty, the old age of the population and migration. 4. On the other hand, the Church is expected to help the poor and the victims of the floods even more. So, in the year of crisis 2009, cca 45.000.000 lei was spent, coming exclusively from the donations of the faithful not from external funds, for supporting the social-charitable activity and the victims of the floods, in the eparchies of the Romanian Patriarchate. At present, 394 social charitable centres operate within the Romanian Patriarchate, out of which: 88 centres for children, 89 old people’s homes, 65 centres for assisting families and persons in distress, 92 social canteens and bakers’, 25 social medical centres and policlinics, 14 centres of diagnosis and treatment for people with special needs, 6 centres for homeless people, 4 centres for the victims of the violence in the family and aggressors, 2 centres for the victims of the trafficking in persons, 9 kindergartens and educational centres etc. In 2009, 629,459 persons enjoyed the social services and projects implemented in eparchies (335 social programmes), out of whom: 152,279 children, 26.324 disabled people, 333.882 aged people and 116.979 poor families etc. At the last meeting of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church (5 – 7 July 201), the Social pastoral programme in time of economical crisis , proposed by the Romanian Patriarchate, was approved, in order to assist the aged families with low pensions, the poor families with many children and low income, as well as the poor sick people. Every eparchy will unfold the programme at the parish, monastery, deanery and eparchial centre level by intensifying the social programmes implemented and by organising new charitable canteens, donations of aliments, clothes, and other articles badly needed as well as fund raising in order to assist the social disadvantaged categories . 5. The comparison in the article mentioned between the 18.000 churches and 11.000 medical consulting room present in Romania is ridiculous, because the prayer for good health in churches does not oppose the medical practice in the consulting rooms, but complete each other. Moreover, several Romanian Orthodox churches date as far back as the Middle Ages, namely hundreds of years before the present medical consulting rooms, so that no numeric equality can be artificially established between them. In conclusion, the Romanian state sustains the activity of the religious cults because it recognises their important social role which some NGO-s hostile to the Church cannot appreciate objectively and completely, feeling disturbed by the fact that the people are very attached to the Church, which is an element of stability and hope, especially in hard times. That is because the Orthodox Church is assisted first of all by the people, and when they are poor, the Church is poor too .
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