teaching religion to children without written permission of their parents, BosNewsLife learned Saturday, August 30.
Fr. Sergi Golovanov from the Siberian city of Omsk learned about the penalties in a July letter from the local department of justice at a time when human rights workers report an increase of religious discrimination in post Communist Russia.
In the letter Justice officials accused "his parish of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God of violating Article 3, Part 5 of Russia’s 1997 law on religion," said the Forum 18 News Service (F18News), which covers religious persecution.
The law prohibits "attraction of minors" to a religious association, as well as religious instruction to children "without the agreement of their parents or guardians."
FINES
"The parish must provide the justice department with written parental permission for the children to attend Sunday school" by August 15, to avoid fines of up to 20 times the minimum wage of between 33 and 66 US Dollars said F18News, which saw the letter.
An official dealing with religious organizations in the Omsk region, Vasili Tkach, defended the fines which came after a visit to the parish by Justice representatives. Tkach told F18News that "the state authorities were acting in accordance with the law."
However Golovanov said he would continue with his Sunday School classes saying he had already received "the verbal agreement of the parents of the five children who receive religious instruction at the parish."
"Written permission is nowhere specified in the law. Neither does the official commentary to the 1997 religion law make any mention of written parental permission," added Forum 18, a human rights watch dog linked to the news organization.
PRECEDENT
However the case against the priest is expected to set a precedent for religious teaching to children in Russia and has added to concern over efforts by local Russian authorities to have control over especially very active religious individuals and groups.
"A cinema owner might typically announce, under pressure from some local state body, that he can no longer rent out his hall to a Protestant congregation. A Muslim community might be refused permission to build a mosque. A Catholic parish might encounter staunch resistance in recovering its historical church building," observed F18News in a recent religious survey on Russia.
In addition Christian groups, including the Salvation Army, have encountered difficulties in carrying out social programs as well as obtaining visa’s for foreign preachers and missionary workers.
"The international human rights agreements to which Russia is a signatory are typically not of core concern. It remains unclear whether the (President) Putin regime views this situation as ideal. It is certainly in no hurry to change it," F18News said.
