site.btaUPDATED Comments on Old Calendar Orthodox Church Registration

Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil Sunday commented to the press on the registration of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria (OCOCB). By a final judgement of mid-December, the Supreme Court of Cassation entered the OCOCB into the Register of Religious Denominations with the Sofia City Court.

The Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria traces its beginnings to 1968, when the Bulgarian Orthodox Church decided to switch from the Julian Calendar to the Revised Julian Calendar. Some of the clergy and adherents of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church disagreed with the abandonment of the Julian Calendar.

In His Holiness's words, recognition of the OCOCB would cause confusion in the Bulgarian people, and would impact the celebration of the major Christian feasts and the teaching of religion in school. "It is no coincidence that under the law, two companies cannot be registered with the same name and registered office. We profess one faith and the State will come to the point of asking which of these two communities is the Orthodox Church. We will see how the matter will be resolved," Patriarch Daniil said. 

The Patriarch also commented on the support for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church expressed by President Rumen Radev, the Council of Ministers and politicians.

"This support is based on the fact that it took nearly 20 years to overcome a very unfortunate rift within the Church. A Religious Denominations Act was adopted, so the court's judgement is all the more surprising given this legal framework," Patriarch Daniil said, adding that he hopes what is enshrined in the Constitution and the law will be upheld.

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If changes are made to the Religious Denominations Act, they should affect everyone, not only those who are Orthodox, National Assembly Speaker Nataliya Kiselova told journalists on the need for legal changes after the Supreme Court of Cassation's decision on the registration of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria (OCOCB). 

She pointed out that there are two registered Orthodox churches outside the Bulgarian Orthodox Church-Bulgarian Patriarchate (BOC-BP). This is an issue that has been around since 2008, it has just been given more serious importance now, she said. The issue should be resolved by respecting the constitutional place given to the BOC, on the one hand, and taking into account the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Bulgarian courts, Kiselova added. In her words, a balance must be sought between these two boundaries - on the one hand canon law, on the other secular law.

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During a meeting of Patriarch Daniil with BSP-United Left, Co-Floor Leader Atanas Zafirov presented the vision of the coalition for the protection of Orthodoxy in Bulgaria, including the draft law on the amendment of the Denominations Act, whose main goal is the affirmation of the unity of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate. He stressed that the protection of the Church's independence is a top priority for BSP-United Left.