RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE BALKANS

New Zealand Tablet, 2 October 1913, Page 47

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE BALKANS

In reply to Bulgaria’s proposal that religious and educational freedom for all the Christian populations in the new territories annexed -by Servia, Greece, and Montenegro should be granted by the Treaty of Bucharest on the basis of reciprocity/ the Servian dele* gate declared that the question of schools and churches was reserved by the constitution of Servia and could not be dealt with in a treaty. It is to be feared (remarks the Catholic Times that the condition of the Catholics in the parts of Turkey which have been annexed will not be much improvedif. it is at all bettered. Servia professed, when it undertook the war against Turkey with the other three Balkan Powers/ that it was animated by the desire to ensure freedom for the Christian subjects of the Porte. But, as a matter of fact, it is itself a most intolerant country. The right of the Catholics to have a church or a school in Servia is not officially recognised. In Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Greece the situation is less difficult for the Catholics, but in all the four nations the religion of the people is treated as an affair to be regulated by the State, and it is only too probable that systematic efforts will be made to coerce into schism the Catholics in the territory wrested from Turkey.