IV 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 632 
Urging the Government of Romania to provide equitable, prompt, and fair 
restitution to the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic 
Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Unitarian Church, the 
Hungarian Reformed Church, the Jewish community, and other affected 
religious communities for property confiscated by the former Communist 
government in Romania. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 6, 2004 
Mr. TANCREDO (for himself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, 
and Ms. KAPTUR) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Urging the Government of Romania to provide equitable, 
prompt, and fair restitution to the Romanian Greek 
Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church, the Unitarian Church, the 
Hungarian Reformed Church, the Jewish community, 
and other affected religious communities for property 
confiscated by the former Communist government in Ro-
mania. 
Whereas the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, the Roman 
Catholic Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the 
Unitarian Church, the Hungarian Reformed Church, the 
Jewish community, and other affected religious commu-
•HRES 632 IH 
nities have suffered the confiscation of their property in 
Romania; 
Whereas on December 1, 1948, the Communist government 
in Romania enacted legislation which dissolved the Roma-
nian Greek Catholic Church and transferred most of its 
property to the Romanian Orthodox Church; 
Whereas many Romanian Greek Catholic churches, Roman 
Catholic churches, Evangelical Lutheran churches, Uni-
tarian churches, Hungarian Reformed churches, and 
Jewish institutions were closed by the Communist gov-
ernment and many of their secular properties seized; 
Whereas a central element of persecution by the Communist 
government in Romania was the uncompensated confisca-
tion of real and personal property from individuals and 
religious communities; 
Whereas on January 2, 1990, the 1948 decree which dis-
solved the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was abro-
gated, Greek Catholics began to worship openly again 
and three secretly ordained bishops emerged from hiding; 
Whereas the Romanian Government adopted Law-Decree 
NR. 126/1990 to lay down legal provisions and procedure 
for the return of confiscated property that originally be-
longed to the Greek Catholic Church, stipulating that 
‘‘[t]he property seized by the State pursuant to Decree 
No. 358/1948 and currently in the possession of the 
State shall, with the exception of agricultural lands, be 
returned in their present state to the Romanian Greek 
Catholic Church United with Rome. For the sole purpose 
of establishing identification procedures, a commission 
shall be set up consisting of representatives of the State 
and the Romanian Greek Catholic Church United with
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Rome appointed by the Government to draw up the in-
ventories and procedures necessary for restitution’’; 
Whereas to date, religious communities have reportedly re-
ceived less than five percent of their former properties; 
Whereas on June 1, 2002, Pope John Paul II urged Romania 
to return all assets of the Romanian Greek Catholic and 
Roman Catholic Churches that were confiscated by the 
Communist government in Romania, stating ‘‘[i]t’s my 
sincere hope that, for example, implementation is given— 
in terms of ecclesiastic structures—to the agreements 
reached among those responsible of the Orthodox Church, 
the Catholic Church, and the Holy See’’; 
Whereas while speaking at a conference on June 3, 2002, re-
garding the role of churches in Romania’s drive to join 
NATO and the European Union, Romanian President 
Ion Iliescu refused to actively pursue the restitution of 
Catholic Church property seized by the former Com-
munist government because ‘‘[t]he state cannot interfere 
in restituting churches to the Catholic Church’’, and 
added that handing back Catholic property ‘‘is a bit more 
complicated because the state cannot interfere in the 
church hierarchy’’; 
Whereas the affected religious communities deserve the re-
turn of or compensation for property seized by the Com-
munists; 
Whereas since 1990, post-Communist countries in Central 
and Eastern Europe have grappled with the question of 
how to redress these wrongful confiscations of property 
with Romania lagging significantly behind the others; and 
Whereas with respect to the role of the Romanian courts in 
the restitution process, the Chairman of the United
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States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Eu-
rope observed: ‘‘In the mid-1990s . . . hundreds of court 
decisions in favor of property claimants were reversed by 
the supreme court after they had become final and irrev-
ocable judgments. The European Court of Human Rights 
has recently ruled that these actions violated the Euro-
pean Convention on Human Rights.’’: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) notes with concern the apparent unwilling-
ness of the Government of Romania to provide equi-
table, prompt, and fair restitution to the Romanian 
Greek Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, 
the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Unitarian 
Church, the Hungarian Reformed Church, the Jew-
ish community, and other affected religious commu-
nities for property confiscated by the former Com-
munist government in Romania; and 
(2) calls on the Government of Romania— 
(A) to provide fair, prompt, and equitable 
restitution to the Romanian Greek Catholic 
Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church, the Unitarian Church, 
the Hungarian Reformed Church, the Jewish 
community, and other affected religious commu-
nities under Romanian law and in accordance 
with the Constitution of Romania and all appli-
•HRES 632 IH 
cable international agreements to which Roma-
nia is a party; 
(B) to respect the constitutional rights of 
existence and practice of the Romanian Greek 
Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, 
the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Uni-
tarian 
Church, 
the 
Hungarian 
Reformed 
Church, the Jewish community, and other af-
fected religious communities, and to fully en-
force all court decisions regarding the restitu-
tion of or access to seized properties; 
(C) to stop the demolition and dismember-
ment of Greek Catholic churches and to imme-
diately ensure the security of all Greek Catholic 
churches and other buildings from the 18th and 
19th centuries; 
(D) to provide restitution for the property 
rights of all agricultural and forestry lands be-
longing to the Romanian Greek Catholic 
Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church, the Unitarian Church, 
the Hungarian Reformed Church, the Jewish 
community, and other affected religious commu-
nities;
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(E) to repeal Law-Decree NR. 126/1990, 
as the transfer of juridical duties of a state to 
a mixed ecclesiastic committee has proven inef-
fectual and seriously hampers the ability of the 
Romanian Greek Catholic Church to seek re-
dress, and to allow the claims submitted under 
Law-Decree NR. 126/1990 to be heard by an 
independent, unbiased, nonreligious commis-
sion; and 
(F) to ensure that the special commission 
instituted under Law 501/2002 considers the 
thousands of applications for restitution in an 
open, transparent, and prompt manner, and ex-
peditiously issues decisions on the return of 
properties to religious communities. 
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