Cluj, 26.11.2014.
Our 25 years lasting faith in the Rule-of- Law vanished today, when the Ploiesti Court-Board hypocritically re-nationalized the Reformed Székely Mikó High School in Sepsiszentgyörgy/Sfantu Gheorghe, rightful property of the Transylvanian Reformed Church District. By this decision the Romanian State clearly proclaims that the Reformed Church members and other minorities are not subject to the same rights as anyone else in this country. We firmly refuse to be second-class citizens, and we demand the State to define what particular rights the minorities are entitled. We would not like to find ourselves in the situation of the Saxon population, which during the communist regime became of secondary importance, and have been sold out.
We need to reconsider the relationship between the Church and State in the following period, therefore, on Saturday, the 29th of November, at 11,00 o’clock - am, an extraordinary Assembly of the Church District was scheduled, which will take place in the parish of Cluj/Kolozsvár “Alsóváros” church. The gathered delegates of our congregations, presbyteries and church institutions will determine the path on which we will move forward.
Our loyalty and belief in the Rule-of-Law, which we nurtured toward the Romanian State in the past years was seriously offended. What hurts most that our whole community, approximately 700,000 members of the Reformed Church, was slapped in the face, was called deceitful, cheater, and demanding. This is first of all a moral issue for us, of much higher importance than the existence or non-existence of a mere building. This act of re-nationalization clearly sends the message worldwide, that in this country anything at any time can be accomplished. Meanwhile, severe injustice was committed as well, against those who consciously carried out their assigned work.
This issue can be severely crucial for the next period, because all the Reformed high schools are in the same situation, since the fact that according the order and structure of the Reformed Church, all its belonging Institutions are having separate legal entity, is not acknowledged. This is a peremptory reality which was now firmly denied. If the Romanian State does not intend to comprehend and admit these verities, they will always feign a legal error comma, upon which they can at any time achieve whatever they strive for.
We strongly reject this attitude of the State. This is unequivocal discrimination, while for the majority Church properties worth millions of Euros, such as hotels and other valuable estates are allocated, to the minority churches the State confiscates even the rightfully owned belongings!
We insist upon the autonomy of the Church! The Romanian State is now questioning the ownership of all resituated estates since 1990. Although barely one-third of the nationalized properties of the Reformed Church were returned, now the State is attempting to enunciate that even this one-third has been unlawfully restored to its rightful owner. From now on only the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will remain as an opportunity, where the protest of the European Christianity, of the Reformed Church, cannot remain unheard!
“And you, son of man, be a prophet about the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord: This is what the Lord has said: Because your hater has said against you, Aha! and, The old waste places are our heritage, we have taken them:
For this cause be a prophet, and say, This is what the Lord has said: Because, even because they have been glad over you and put you to shame on every side, because you have become a heritage for the rest of the nations, and you are taken up on the lips of talkers and in the evil talk of the people: For this reason, you mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord!
For this cause the Lord has said, See, I have taken an oath that the nations which are round about you are themselves to undergo the shame which they have put on you.
For truly I am for you, and I will be turned to you, and you will be ploughed and planted.”
Ezekiel 36:1-4a, 7. 9.
Rev. Béla Kató, Bishop Gábor Markó, Lay President