22 July 2004
:: NEWS ::
Alternative Synod to organize civil unrest activities after yesterday's police raid in its churches
One priest with medium bodily injury after the police raided the Sveto Uspenie Bogorodichno Church late last night
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The Alternative Synod of Father Inokentii has announced that it will start civil unrest activities because of the closing down of 250 churches countrywide. Buses with clergy and parishioners are expected to arrive in Sofia on July 22 to protest against the activities of the prosecutor's office and the police.
The raids were carried out in Sofia, Plovdiv, Smoljan, Bansko, Chepelare, and other places across the country with a prosecutor's warrant. During the raid, which started in the early hours of July 21, the alternative Synod headed by Father Inokentii was forcefully evicted from the Orthodox churches it occupied. Police stormed through 250 churches across the country. The churches were sealed, and the clergy serving in them - driven out.
Three priests were detained and taken for questioning to the Fifth District Police Station after the police raid in Sofia's St. Paraskeva Church. The church is said to be the headquarters of the alternative Synod. One of the detained, Father Kamen Barakov, urged for the resignation of Bulgaria's Chief Prosecutor Nikola Filchev and Interior Minister Georgi Petkanov.
Late last night, a priest from Father Inokentii's alternative Synod sustained medium bodily injury after the police raid in the Sveto Uspenie Bogorodichno Church [Assumption Church]. Father Hristo Pisarov has at least one broken tooth, a broken nose and other bruises after 50 policemen raided the church. The priests had not let them in the church voluntarily. Father Pisarov has been detained for 24 hours in the Sixth District Police Station in Sofia for obstruction of the activities of the police.
Opposition MPs called for a stop of the political interference in religious affairs and insisted on amendments to the Denominations Act. After the adoption of the Denominations Act in late 2002 opposition MPs petitioned the Constitutional Court to declare unconstitutional certain provisions relating to the privileged status of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the possible restriction of individual rights by a denomination's rules, observances or rituals, but the impugned provisions remained in force.
The Religious Denominations Act has come under severe criticism by the
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee for, inter alia, using administrative means
to overcome the schism in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, by favouring
one of the rivaling wings of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, that of Patriarch
Maxim.