Slovenia's Hindu community was finally registered at the end
of August, seventeen months after first applying, Drago Cepar, head of the
government's Office for Religious Communities, confirmed to Forum 18 News Service
from the capital Ljubljana on 1 September. And for the first time he revealed
the names of the seven other groups whose registration applications are still
pending. He failed to explain why he had held up the Hindus' registration for
so long or whether and when the remaining seven would be registered. The
co-pastor of a Protestant Church which has applied for registration told Forum
18 they have been waiting for half a year.
"We are very happy to get registration, of course," Natasa Sivic,
leader of the Hindu community, told Forum 18 from Ljubljana on 2 September. She
said Cepar had written to her community on 26 August to inform it that
registration had been granted. She said there are a number of minor formalities
the community must undertake to complete the registration process. The Hindu
community has already been added as the 34th on the list of registered
religious communities on the Office for Religious Communities' website
(www.gov.si/uvs).
After taking office in 2000, Cepar refused to register any new religious
communities, a policy he reversed in August of this year in the wake of strong
pressure from officials, religious communities and journalists. Just before
granting the Hindu community registration, he registered the Calvary Chapel in
Celje and the Dharmaling Tibetan Buddhist association (see F18News 27 August
2003).
Cepar told Forum 18 that the other seven groups "whose written materials
we have received" are: the Christian Outreach Centre of Ljubljana, the
Christian Centre in Ljubljana, the International Church of Christ, the Holy
Church of Ultra Teleme, the Universal religious community of the rising sun,
the original native of the invincible sun of the empire of the sun and the
Raelians.
Carol Vidic, who co-pastors the Christian Outreach Centre congregations in
Ljubljana and Maribor with her husband Klemen, told Forum 18 on 2 September
that the Ljubljana centre had applied for registration at the beginning of the
year. "My husband was told at the religious office that they couldn't
accept any new communities because as Slovenia is joining the European Union
all laws need to be changed," Vidic reported. "That was their
excuse." She said the church had been forced to register after that as a
social organisation instead. "That was easier – there was far less
hassle." However, the Centre continues to seek registration as a religious
organisation.
Other groups on the list remain controversial. The Raelians sparked worldwide
controversy last December when they claimed to have achieved the birth of the
world's first cloned baby.