GERB proposes changes to the Religious Denominations Act

GERB is proposing amendments to the Law on Religious Denominations to explicitly state that the sole representative of the traditional religion in the country—Eastern Orthodoxy—is the Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Bulgarian Patriarchate, the party announced on December 30.

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According to GERB, registered religious denominations may freely define their names, but they must clearly distinguish themselves from the only legally recognized Orthodox Church, namely the Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Bulgarian Patriarchate.

In their reasoning for the bill, GERB reminds that by including in the legal norm the recognition of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church – Bulgarian Patriarchate as a member of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, the legislator acknowledges only this abbreviation, BOC – BP, which is approved by the canons of the Ecumenical Church and this is the traditional Orthodox denomination, referred to by Article 13, paragraph 3 of the Law on Religious Denominations.

The proposal made in the draft law is not intended to create a new different legal content and to prevent any possibility of misapplication and/or misinterpretation of the law.