(Sir Europe - Bratislava) - The annual meeting of the Consultative Council of the Religious Cults of Romania (CCRCR) took place in Bucharest on 26 April, under the chairmanship of patriarch Daniel of the Romenian Orthodox Church, with participation of representatives of ten religious cults. During the meeting, the Statute of the CCRCR was approved. The central theme of the session was “Good health - gift of God and human responsibility”. Participants expressed their interest in promoting a “more efficient public sanitary system” guided by the principles of “social ethics”. The CCRCR declared support for the legislative initiatives protecting life from the moment of conception and traditional values of family. Among the matters discussed there was also a question of compensations for the Churches´ property confiscated by the communist regime, as well as the request to the State authorities to adopt legislative measures regarding the VAT paid by the recognised religious cults and its return for “social-philanthropic, cultural-educational and municipal-administrative activities”. (continued)

Participants of the meeting decided to set up four commissions in relation to medical and social care, education, economical juridical matters and religious cults and national patrimony, with aim to “formulate common points of view to topical problems and to propose amendments to the projects of normative interest for the religious cults”.