Aid to the Church in Need: Kazakhstan: Fears over draft law

Kazakhstan: Fears over draft law - Church leaders fear for the future

Posted by Press release on 12/6/2008, 12:10 pm
Message modified by board administrator 7/8/2008, 1:28 pm

ACN News, Thursday, 11th June 2008 – KAZAKHSTAN

Fears over draft law - Church leaders describe proposed religion law as “a disaster”
By John Pontifex

BISHOPS in Kazakhstan have spoken out against a draft law which they say could turn the clock back and impose Soviet-style controls on the Church, forcing it into major retreat.

Prime Minister Karim Masimov has already given his backing to the Central Asian country’s proposed Religion Law which, if approved, would massively clamp-down on the activities of so-called ‘unapproved’ religious organisations.

For the Catholic Church and other religious groups denied state-recognition, the law would compel the state to expel foreign missionaries, set a quota on the number allowed, and restrict the publication and distribution of religious literature.

The law would tighten up on planning regulations which may lead to church buildings being forced to close.

Children wishing to take part in religious activities would require explicit written permission from their parents and perhaps most worrying to the Catholic authorities, the law would ban foreign aid – crucial to the Church’s survival in a region racked by poverty.

The law now awaits official approval by President Nursultan Nazarbavev having already been passed by Kazakhstan’s lower chamber of parliament. A deadline of 1st December 2008 was set by parliament as the deadline for adopting the law.

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, the Catholic charity for suffering Christians, Archbishop Jan Lenga of Karaganda, said the law could force more than 70 of Kazakhstan’s priests to stop ministering in the country, leaving only seven active.

Bishop Jan Lenga

Describing the draft legislation as “a disaster”, the archbishop added: “This proposed law is against all non-Orthodox and will hit us.”

Archbishop Lenga added that the Religion Law could leave the Church in severe financial trouble, with a ban on collections at Mass and foreign charitable donations.

A bishops’ pastoral letter recently read out at all Masses praised the country’s progress since the Soviet era and urged that the Government remain committed to freedom and tolerance.

Neville Kyrke-Smith, just back from Kazakhstan on an ACN fact-finding and project assessment trip, described how in some parts of the country people opposed to the new law were holding days of prayer and fasting.

He said: “The new religion law is a threat and a fear and we hope it won’t turn into a reality. It would be an appalling step backwards in a place where there has been terrible oppression and suffering in recent times.”

With only 200,000 faithful in Kazakhstan, the Catholic Church is very small in a country of nearly 15 million and has failed to shrug off its image as an outsider.

The vast majority of Catholics are descendants of Soviet prisoners sent from Eastern Europe to vast detention centres in and around Kazakhstan.

A small parish in Astana the capital of Kazakhstan

Proponents of the law say it will give added advantage to the Russian Orthodox Church and Islam, which are the dominant religions in the region and both of which do have state recognition and would be largely untouched by the new regulations.

Despite the obstacles facing the Catholic Church, some bishops still hope for a last-minute breakthrough, putting their trust in President who is thought to be opposed to the Religion Law.

Efforts to resolve the issue are expected to receive an important boost with the appointment of a new nuncio for Kazakhstan, Archbishop Maury Buendía.

Some Church leaders have said the law is aimed less at the Catholic Church but at fundamentalist Islamic groups and some evangelical sects which, they say, are growing very fast and are becoming increasingly difficult for the authorities to control.

Many church leaders say that if the law is approved, Kazakhstan would become like neighbouring Uzbekistan, where the oppression of Christians is worse.

Last year, Aid to the Church in Need provided nearly $500,000 in aid for Kazakhstan, prioritising help for building churches and chapels. ACN support for cars is essential in a country which has the ninth largest land mass in the world.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Sydney office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web:www.aidtochurch.org

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