The properties of the Greek Catholic Church and the exploitation of Blacks

Before going on their summer holiday, twenty American congressmen - 13 Republicans and 7 democrats - asked Secretary of State John Kerry to protest against the Law of restitution for which the Ponta Government has taken responsibility. The American congressmen were also asking Kerry to pressure the Romanian executive into speeding up the restitution of properties to the Greek-Catholic Church.

The US State Department responded, saying that Washington treats the matter of the restitution of properties of the Hungarian Church, seized in Romania after 1945 as "a priority of the Administration".

We don't know what the reason was for the American congressmen to ask for the resolution of these problems in the restitution of the properties for the Greek-Catholic Church, but not for the Orthodox one, for example, which is in the same situation.

The former owners have recently made a series of accusations concerning the fact that the members of the UDMR, as well as the Hungarian state, are pressuring the Romanian authorities into favoring the restitution in kind for minorities and for certain religious cults.

According to their opinion, certain objectives of national interest in areas such as Harghita and Covasna are restituted to the Hungarian population through irrevocable court rulings, without them being the rightful owners of the buildings in question.

We are in turn suggesting the members of the Romanian parliament write a letter to president Traian Băsescu, protesting the strategic relations between Romania and the United States which are dependent on dealing with the issue of "quantitative easing" that the US is doing, and by which it is harming Romania, an action which should be dealt with within the shortest delays.

If nothing else, printing dollars without any restrictions is harming the European Union (which we are a part of) and ourselves, as a result.

Dealing with this issue, on one hand, would no longer be giving a bad role model to the EU, which is ready itself to proceed with printing Euros in excess, in a symmetrical manner.

We are advising the Romanian president to ask the Romanian congressmen: "How is this going to end, if we keep this up, gentlemen?"

And let's not forget that the Americans have exploited blacks for a long time...

• The ANRP, in talks with the US embassy, concerning the restitutions of properties to the Greek-Catholic Church

The law for the restitution of buildings and plots of land abusively seized by the Communist regime could see some legislative changes in order to deal with the issue of the claims issued by the religious cults, especially those of the Greek-Catholic Church in Romania, George Băeşu, the president of the Romanian National Authority for the Restitution of Properties (ANRP) said yesterday.

According to his statements, within the briefest delays, the representatives of the ANRP will have a meeting with officials of the US Embassy in Romania to discuss the compensations in kind to the Greek-Catholic Church.

The president of the ANRP also told us that, should any irregularities be encountered when it comes to the compensations to the religious cults, then any measures needed will be taken to revise the legislation, so that nobody gets left with the impression of having been treated unfairly in the process of the restitution of buildings or of the plots of land abusively seized by the communist regime.

"We need to look for all the available methods for creating a state of normalcy when it comes to the retrocession of the plots of land or the buildings seized by the communist regime, which is why the ANRP will no longer decide the payment in the compensation cases, without prior verifications and validations", George Băeşu further said.

According to the statements of the president of the ANRP, on the agenda of the session of the evaluation commission, about 250 compensation cases will be discussed, of which 100 are the object of the law 10/2001, another 100 come from the old commissions in charge of the restitutions, and the remaining cases are being evaluated based on the law of agricultural real estate.

George Băeşu recently said that there are major issues when it comes to the compensations governed by the law no. 10, where are over 27,000 unopened cases.

For cults and minorities, the president of the ANRP said that there were no particular problems, because, for the most part, the compensations would be awarded in kind.

"In cases where the restitution in kind is not possible, we will again be the ones making compensation proposals, through another, smaller commission, to the major commission. When it comes to cults and minorities there are issues, especially concerning the ability of the religious cults to prove they are entitled to receive compensations. And over there we have cases still can't be dealt with, but aren't being closed either. We are waiting to see whether on a political level, there will be amicable solutions when it comes to the religious cults", George Băeşu recently said.

According to data supplied by the ANRP, out of the 80,000 cases which are up for solving, 43,388 are set based on the law no. 10/2001, 11,559 are cases set up based on the law of agricultural real estate, 11,406 cases contain requests of the cults and national minorities and 13,798 are cases of compensation based on some international treaties for the Romanian citizens who have lost assets in Bulgaria, Bessarabia, Bukovina and the Hertza land.

• The status of the cases of restitution to the religious cults

The lawmaker has allowed two deadlines for the submission of retrocession requests by the religious cults in Romania.

Thus, upon the expiration of the first deadline, (March 2nd 2003) 7568 restitution requests were submitted across the entire country, whereas upon the expiration of the second deadline granted for that purpose (January 25th, 2006) approximately 7246 restitution requests were submitted across the entire country. Until 2011, approximately 14814 requests have been submitted.

Approximately 4552 requests for restitution filed by religious cults have been resolved, according to data by the ANRP up to 2011.

Based on Government Ordinance no. 94/2000, many buildings which served as hospitals, colleges, museums, universities, schools, were restituted to the religious cults in Romania.s

However, according to the ANRP there are a number of factors that slow down the process of the restitution of properties which are being claimed by the religious cults, such as the lack of corroborative documents or the absence of some deeds that have not been submitted by the representatives of the cults to support their requests.

On April 17th, the Government passed the draft law which stipulates that the former owners of nationalized homes which will not be compensated in kind will be awarded points with a nominal value of 1 leu, based on the value of the building, which will allow them to participate in auctions to buy other buildings or they will be allowed to redeem them for money, but no more than 14% of those points, and only after 2017.