[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 69 (Monday, May 23, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H3729-H3732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
URGING ROMANIA TO PROVIDE RESTITUTION TO RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree
to the resolution (H. Res. 191) urging the Government of Romania to
recognize its responsibilities to provide equitable, prompt, and fair
restitution to all religious communities for property confiscated by
the former Communist government in Romania, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Res. 191
Whereas the establishment of a Communist government in
Romania after World War II proved disastrous for established
religious institutions;
Whereas a central element of persecution by the Communist
government in Romania was the uncompensated confiscation of
real and personal property from religious communities and
from leaders of religious communities, and the arrest and
persecution of religious leaders;
Whereas 2,140 schools, hospitals, orphanages, and other
charitable and civic institutions were illegally confiscated
under communism from the four historic Hungarian churches
(Roman Catholic, Hungarian Reformed, Evangelical Lutheran,
and Unitarian) and actual possession and use of such
properties has been denied in all but 30 cases;
Whereas Romania's wartime Fascist government began the
process of confiscating Jewish property in September 1940 and
its
[[Page H3730]]
postwar Communist government reaffirmed most of these
confiscations;
Whereas only a handful of Jewish communal properties have
been restituted, often with government agencies still using
the facilities and paying no rent, and over 1,000 communal
properties remain in the possession of the Government of
Romania;
Whereas some Jewish claims have been willfully ignored for
years, such as in the case of agricultural land in Iasi,
where municipal authorities continue to sell parcels of this
land;
Whereas on January 2, 1990, under terms of Decree-Law 126/
1990, the 1948 decree which dissolved the Romanian Greek
Catholic Church was abrogated, permitting Greek Catholics
again to worship openly, and legal provisions and procedures
were established for the return of confiscated properties
that before 1948 belonged to the Greek Catholic Church;
Whereas the commission established under Decree-Law 126/
1990 composed of representatives of the Romanian Government
and Greek Catholic Church has proven ineffective in resolving
disputed claims;
Whereas Romanian Law No. 501/2002, providing for the
restitution of religious properties, was adopted in June 2002
without consultation with the affected religious communities,
does not effectively meet the needs of those communities,
contains numerous legal deficiencies, and is delayed in its
implementation;
Whereas all of the religious communities have demanded the
return of property seized by the Romanian Communist
government;
Whereas since 1990, post-Communist countries in Central and
Eastern Europe have grappled with the question of how to
redress these wrongful confiscations of religious property,
but Romania has lagged significantly behind other post-
Communist countries;
Whereas since the early 1990s, the United States Commission
on Security and Cooperation in Europe has monitored the
property restitution and compensation efforts being made by
the governments of post-Communist countries in Central and
Eastern Europe;
Whereas with respect to the role of the Romanian courts in
the restitution process, the Chairman of the United States
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe observed:
``In the mid-1990s . . . hundreds of court decisions in favor
of property claimants were reversed by the Supreme Court
after they had become final and irrevocable judgments. The
European Court of Human Rights has recently ruled that these
actions violated the European Convention on Human Rights.'';
and
Whereas Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights provides that ``[e]veryone has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom
to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone
or in community with others and in public or private, to
manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance.'': Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) notes with concern the unwillingness of past
governments of Romania to recognize the responsibility to
provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution of religious
property that was confiscated by the former Communist
government of Romania;
(2) calls on the Government of Romania--
(A) to respect the constitutional rights of existence and
practice of all religious communities to celebrate and
practice their own religion in respectable locations, the
right to propagate the given beliefs, and the right to openly
communicate the beliefs and laws of the religion;
(B) to provide fair, prompt, and equitable restitution to
all religious communities under Romanian law and in
accordance with the Constitution of Romania and all
applicable international agreements to which Romania is a
party; and
(C) to provide restitution for the property rights of all
agricultural and forestry lands belonging to religious
communities;
(3) calls upon the Government of Romania to amend Decree-
Law 126/1990 to require that claims involving Romanian Greek
Catholic properties be heard by an independent,
disinterested, nonreligious commission, and calls upon the
Government of Romania to prevent the demolition of Greek
Catholic churches and to provide immediately for the security
of all Greek Catholic churches and other religious buildings
dating from the 18th and 19th centuries; and
(4) with respect to Romanian Law No. 501/2002, calls upon
the Government of Romania--
(A) to amend the law to reflect the principle of
``restitution in integrum'' as urged by Resolution 1123/1997
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and to
restore full ownership of all property and all rights
emanating from such ownership;
(B) to amend the law to reduce the five-year period to one
year during which public institutions can continue to occupy
confiscated religious properties;
(C) to amend the law to include compensation, according to
an equitable formula, for demolished religious properties;
(D) to increase to fair market value the amount of rent
paid to religious communities for properties of which they
cannot immediately regain use under law;
(E) to eliminate the practice of requiring monetary
compensation from religious communities to cover state costs
for maintenance and ``improvement'' of the buildings since
their confiscation in the 1940s; and
(F) to obligate local government officials, bodies, and
agencies to provide all necessary documentation and
cooperation to facilitate the implementation of decisions
issued by the central government's Special Restitution
Committee and to cease posing court challenges and other
obstacles against such implementation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen).
General Leave
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Florida?
There was no objection.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 191. This
resolution was introduced by the distinguished gentleman from
California (Mr. Lantos). House Resolution 191 urges the Government of
Romania to recognize its responsibilities to provide equitable, prompt,
and fair restitution to all religious communities for property
confiscated by the former Communist government in Romania.
Specifically, this resolution expresses concern at the unwillingness
of past governments of Romania to provide restitution of religious
property that was confiscated by former Communist government officials
of Romania. A central element of persecution by the Communist
government in Romania was the uncompensated confiscation of property
from religious communities and religious leaders, and the arrest and
persecution of religious leaders. After the collapse of the Communist
regime in Romania in 1989 and 1990, the new government of Romania
adopted legislation to provide for the restitution of religious
property seized during the previous 45 years of Communist rule. That
legislation has been poorly and slowly implemented by Romanian
governments over the past 15 years, and very little of this property
has been returned to Romania's religious communities.
The religious communities that have been adversely affected include
the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the
Hungarian Reformed Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as well as
the Unitarian Church, the Jewish community, and other religious
communities. Given the inherent injustice in the confiscation of these
properties as well as Romania's desire to engage with other democracies
through Euro-Atlantic institutions such as NATO and the European Union,
Romania must take steps to accelerate the return of these properties to
their rightful owners.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for the government of Romania to face its
responsibilities and implement what is necessary to resolve these
issues. I urge the adoption of this important resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I
rise in support of House Resolution 191.
I first want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) for his
effort in bringing this resolution forward for action in the House
today. I also want to acknowledge our colleagues who introduced this
legislation: the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and the
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo). As our colleagues know, the
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) has had a longstanding interest
and concern for Central Europe and these issues involving religious
liberty.
Mr. Speaker, freedom of religion is one of the most important of the
blessings of liberty that is assured to us in the United States by the
first amendment to our Constitution. It is also a freedom that is
explicitly guaranteed in the universal declaration of human rights.
Article 18 states: ``Everyone has
[[Page H3731]]
the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and freedom,
either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to
manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and
observance.''
It is not enough, Mr. Speaker, for men and women to have freedom of
conscience to believe what they choose. It is also essential that they
have the right to join with others of like mind to practice and worship
together as a religious community; and for this right to be meaningful,
they must have the right to control property that they can use for
religious, charitable, and educational purposes consistent with their
beliefs.
The important resolution that we are considering today goes to the
heart of this problem, and it raises serious questions about continuing
difficulties of some religious communities in Romania. Romania, like
many other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, faced 4\1/2\
decades of Communist rule, and Communist Party leaders feared that
religion would undermine their authoritarian rule. As a result, most
religious property in the country was seized by the Communist
government.
Following the collapse of Communist rule, the countries of Central
and Eastern Europe have all had to deal with the restitution of
property to religious communities, and it has been a difficult and
complex process everywhere. In Romania it has been more complex and
much slower than elsewhere. For this reason, the resolution before us
today urges the Romanian government to recognize its responsibilities
to provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution to all religious
communities for property confiscated by the former Communist government
in Romania.
Mr. Speaker, the resolution singles out the three categories of
religious communities for whom restitution has been particularly slow
and unsatisfactory in Romania. The Jewish community saw its properties
confiscated beginning in September of 1940 under the Fascist government
that preceded the Communist government, but the Communist government
reaffirmed these confiscations after it came to power. Only a handful
of Jewish communal properties have been restituted and over 1,000
communal properties are still under government control.
The religious communities of the Hungarian ethnic minority have also
faced the same problem. Over 2,000 schools, hospitals, orphanages and
other charitable and civic properties were seized from the Roman
Catholic Church, which in Romania is primarily Hungarian; the Hungarian
Reformed Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church; and the Hungarian
Unitarian Church.
The third community is the Greek Catholic Church, a community which
is united with the Roman Catholic Church but which observes the Greek
Orthodox liturgy. In 1948 the Greek Catholic Church was dissolved, and
its members were forcibly merged with the Romanian Orthodox Church and
its properties either seized by the government or given to the Romanian
Orthodox Church. In 1990 the Romanian Government adopted legislation to
recognize the Greek Catholic community and permit its members to
worship openly. Unfortunately, the legal provisions to resolve property
restitution have been singularly unsuccessful.
Mr. Speaker, the European Court of Human Rights and the Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe have both criticized the succession
of Romanian governments' failures to satisfactorily deal with the
problems. House Resolution 191 urges the recently elected government to
take the initiative and work to solve religious property restitution.
The government has recently adopted legislation that attempts to deal
with some of the issues, and we welcome that effort to put better
legislation in place to solve these problems. It will require active
and continuing efforts, however; and we urge the government to take
those steps.
Members of all of these religious communities in Romania have
immigrated to the United States over the past century and even before,
and most of the Members of this Congress have constituents who have
expressed concern to us about these issues. Mr. Speaker, this
resolution reflects the legitimate interests and concerns of American
citizens. Let me also add that since Romania is now a member of NATO,
it has an urgent responsibility and an extra responsibility to perform
its responsibilities. We in the United States are looking to Romania as
a NATO member, a fellow NATO member, to now act accordingly.
Mr. Speaker, as a cosponsor of this resolution, I urge my colleagues
to support it.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be a cosponsor
of this bill, and I commend Mr. Lantos and Mr. Tancredo for bringing
this matter before the Congress. The process of providing restitution
or compensation for property confiscated by former regimes in Romania
has been slow, complicated and difficult. We have raised concerns about
this with Romanian authorities for many years now.
As of July 2003, more than 200,000 claims for property restitution
had been filed in Romania by individuals, and more than 7,000 claims
had been filed by religious denominations and communal groups. As the
bill indicates, the historic Hungarian churches--including the
Evangelical Lutheran, Hungarian Reformed, Roman Catholic and
Unitarian--lost more than 2,000 schools, hospitals, orphanages and
other institutions under the communist regime in Romania.
Jewish communal properties were decimated by the Fascist regime that
ruled Romania during World War II, and those confiscations were
reaffirmed by the postwar communist government. Mr. Speaker, the status
of more than 1700 Jewish communal properties remains unresolved.
Further, the plight of Romania's Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church,
which was banned by the communist government in 1948, is particularly
distressful. More than 2,000 churches and other buildings seized from
the Uniates were given to Orthodox parishes. The government decree that
dismantled the Greek Catholic Church was abrogated in 1989; however,
fewer than 200 of their confiscated properties have been returned.
Mr. Speaker, I was pleased that the new government of Romania
recently announced the creation of the National Authority for Property
Restitution to implement Romania's property restitution laws, and it is
my understanding that next week a legislative package designed to
remedy these property issues is expected to be introduced. Apparently
special attention will be paid to properties once belonging to
religious communities and national minorities. The goal is for all
outstanding claims to be resolved by the end of 2006. This would be a
welcomed achievement.
For 15 years, these property claims have been a source of anguish and
frustration for so many Romanians. The political will being
demonstrated by President Basescu and his government is commendable.
Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in this action today, encouraging the
Romanian authorities to provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution
of the confiscated properties.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 191 and I
commend Mr. Lantos and Mr. Tancredo for bringing the issue of property
restitution in Romania before the Congress.
More than 15 years since the fall of the communist regime in Romania,
tens of thousand of claims for the restitution of, or compensation for,
property remain unresolved. This situation is a source of anger and
resentment for many citizens and, in my view, a destabilizing factor in
Romanian society.
To date, more than 200,000 individual claims for property restitution
have been filed with only 15,000--or 7 percent--resolved. The situation
for religious and communal properties is equally as dismal. Of the more
than 7500 claims for communal properties, less than 600 have been
approved for restitution.
The resolution before us addresses the plight of religious and
communal properties in Romania.
Jewish citizens of Romania suffered the appropriation of all of their
personal and communal property by the fascist regime that ruled the
country during World War II, only to have these confiscations confirmed
by the post-war communist government that ruled Romania until the fall
of Ceausescu in 1989. To date, the status of more than 1700 Jewish
communal properties remains unresolved.
Romania's Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church has essentially been caught
in a ``catch twenty-two'' for the past decade and a half. The Greek
Catholic Church was banned by the communist government in 1948 and more
than 2,000 churches and other buildings seized from them were given to
Orthodox parishes. In 1989, the government of Romania annulled the
earlier decree, yet to date, fewer than 200 of the Greek Catholic
properties have been returned to the community. Successive Romanian
administrations have maintained that even though it was a government
decree that confiscated the Greek Catholic property, the government has
no responsibility to secure the return of those properties to the
community.
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I am advised that the new government of Romania under President
Basescu is taking administrative steps to resolve this crisis as soon
as possible and that draft legislation to rectify the shortcomings of
current law will be introduced in the near future. I urge the
government of Romania to act expeditiously and to ensure a fair and
equitable property restitution regime for all of its citizens.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge the cooperation of our
distinguished colleague from Colorado, a member of the International
Relations Committee, Mr. Tancredo, for his excellent cooperation and
work in behalf of H. Res. 191. I also want to thank my friend Chairman
Henry Hyde for his support in bringing this resolution to the floor
today.
It is unconscionable, Mr. Speaker, that a decade and a half after the
end of the communist regime in Romania we are still dealing with the
problem of the restitution of religious property. The communist
government in Romania, as well as communist governments elsewhere in
Central and Eastern Europe, wanted no challenge to their authority, and
throughout that area all religious groups were systematically and
meticulously brought under government control. As part of that process,
most religious properties were confiscated by the communist governments
for state or party use. In Romania, that amounted to the government
seizure of literally thousands of religious schools, hospitals,
orphanages, and other properties that religious communities used for
charitable and humanitarian purposes.
With the fall of the communist governments in 1989, new democratic
governments have had to deal with the restitution of this property to
the religious communities. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the process in
Romania has been slower and less equitable than most other post-
communist countries. A series of Romanian governments since 1990 have
failed to achieve a successful and fair resolution of this problem,
which the European Court of Human Rights and the Commission on Security
and Cooperation in Europe both have criticized. Resolution 191 urges
the recently elected government to take the initiative and work to
solve religious property restitution.
Mr. Speaker, after Congressman Tancredo and I introduced this
resolution, the recently elected government of Romania adopted
legislation to deal with some of the issues that our resolution
discusses, and we welcome that effort. Legislation, as we have seen, is
not necessarily the solution to the problem. It will require active and
continuing efforts on the part of the government to solve these
problems, and we urge Romanian officials to work actively and
aggressively to take the steps necessary to deal with restitution in a
fair and equitable manner.
This problem essentially involves all of the religious communities in
Romania other than the Romanian Orthodox Church.
The Jewish community saw communal properties confiscated by the
Fascist Romanian government beginning in 1940, and these seizures were
reaffirmed by the communist government when it came power after 1944.
Today over 1,000 Jewish communal properties remain under Romanian
government control, properties have not been restored to communal
ownership, and no rent or compensation is being paid to the community
for their continued use.
The four historic Hungarian religious communities--the Roman
Catholic, the Hungarian Reformed, the Evangelical Lutheran, and the
Unitarian churches--lost over 2,000 schools and other buildings used
for charitable and humanitarian activities. Possession and use of these
properties by government entities continues today in all but about
thirty instances.
The Greek Catholic Church in Romania is one of the most complicated
and clearly one of the most frustrating cases. In 1948, the Greek
Catholic Church, which recognizes the authority of the Pope in Rome but
uses the Greek Orthodox liturgy, was forcibly merged with the Romanian
Orthodox Church, and its properties were merged as well or seized by
the government. In 1990 the decree of 1948 was abrogated, but
untangling the properties after more than a generation has been
extremely difficult.
Mr. Speaker, we have seen Romanian governments delaying and
postponing restitution, the Romanian courts have reversed cases that
had already been resolved, and inaction by government officials have
prevented equitable resolution of the vast majority of these property
claims. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the actions of
various Romanian governments in religious property restitution cases in
the mid-1990s ``violated the European Convention on Human Rights.''
Our resolution calls upon the Romanian Government to respect and
resolve these religious restitution cases in a fair, prompt and
equitable manner. In the case of the Greek Catholic Church, it calls
upon the government to amend fundamentally the legislation establishing
a commission for resolution of conflicting claims. In cases where
property cannot be restituted within a period of one year, our
resolution calls for fair compensation until the restitution can be
carried out.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of our colleagues to support this resolution
urging the Government of Romania to recognize its responsibilities to
provide equitable, prompt, and fair restitution to all religious
communities for property confiscated by the former Communist government
in Romania.
Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) that the House suspend the
rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 191, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the resolution, as amended, was
agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________