Bill Text: FL S0314 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Ecumenical Patriarchate/Government of Turkey [SPSC]

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-04-28 - Placed on Special Order Calendar; Read 2nd time -SJ 00955; Amendment(s) adopted (869980, 242254) -SJ 00955; Substituted CS/HM 191 -SJ 00955; Laid on Table, companion bill(s) passed, see CS/HM 191 (Adopted) -SJ 00955 [S0314 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-S0314-Introduced.html

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Florida Senate - 2010                                     SM 314 
 
By Senator Fasano 
11-00399-10                                            2010314__ 
1                           Senate Memorial 
2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States, 
3         urging Congress to encourage the Government of Turkey 
4         to grant the Ecumenical Patriarch appropriate 
5         international recognition, ecclesiastical succession, 
6         and the right to train clergy of all nationalities and 
7         to respect the property rights and human rights of the 
8         Ecumenical Patriarchate. 
9 
10         WHEREAS, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, located in Istanbul, 
11  Turkey, is the Sacred See that presides in a spirit of 
12  brotherhood over a communion of self-governing churches of the 
13  Orthodox Christian world, and 
14         WHEREAS, the See is led by Ecumenical Patriarch 
15  Bartholomew, who is the 269th in direct succession to the 
16  Apostle Andrew and holds titular primacy as primus inter pares, 
17  meaning “first among equals,” in the community of Orthodox 
18  churches worldwide, and 
19         WHEREAS, in 1994, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, along 
20  with leaders of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, cosponsored 
21  the Conference on Peace and Tolerance, which brought together 
22  Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders for an 
23  interfaith dialogue to help end the Balkan conflict and the 
24  ethnic conflict in the Caucasus region, and 
25         WHEREAS, in 1997, the Congress of the United States awarded 
26  Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew the Congressional Gold Medal, 
27  and 
28         WHEREAS, following the terrorist attacks on our nation on 
29  September 11, 2001, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew gathered a 
30  group of international religious leaders to produce the first 
31  joint statement with Muslim leaders that condemned those attacks 
32  as “antireligious,” and 
33         WHEREAS, in October 2005, the Ecumenical Patriarch, along 
34  with Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders, cosponsored the 
35  Conference on Peace and Tolerance II to further promote peace 
36  and stability in southeastern Europe, the Caucasus region, and 
37  Central Asia via religious leaders’ interfaith dialogue, 
38  understanding, and action, and 
39         WHEREAS, the Orthodox Christian Church, in existence for 
40  nearly 2,000 years, numbers approximately 300 million members 
41  worldwide, with more than 2 million members in the United 
42  States, and 
43         WHEREAS, since 1453, the continuing presence of the 
44  Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey has been a living testament to 
45  the religious coexistence of Christians and Muslims, and 
46         WHEREAS, this religious coexistence is in jeopardy because 
47  the Ecumenical Patriarchate is considered a minority religion by 
48  the Turkish government, and 
49         WHEREAS, the Government of Turkey has limited the 
50  candidates available to hold the office of Ecumenical Patriarch 
51  to only Turkish nationals; and, out of the millions of Orthodox 
52  Christians who were living in Turkey at the turn of the 20th 
53  century, there remain as a result of the policies of the Turkish 
54  government during this period fewer than 3,000 of the Ecumenical 
55  Patriarch’s flock left in that country today, and 
56         WHEREAS, the Government of Turkey closed the Theological 
57  School on the island of Halki in 1971 and has refused to allow 
58  it to reopen, thus impeding training for Orthodox Christian 
59  clergy, and 
60         WHEREAS, the Turkish government has confiscated nearly 94 
61  percent of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s properties and has 
62  placed a 42 percent tax, retroactive to 1999, on the Baloukli 
63  Hospital and Home for the Aged, a charity hospital run by the 
64  Ecumenical Patriarchate, and 
65         WHEREAS, the European Union, a group of nations with a 
66  common goal of promoting peace and the well-being of its 
67  peoples, began accession negotiations with Turkey on October 3, 
68  2005, and 
69         WHEREAS, the European Union defined membership criteria for 
70  accession at the Copenhagen European Council in 1993, obligating 
71  candidate countries to achieve certain levels of reform, 
72  including stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, 
73  adherence to the rule of law, and respect for and protection of 
74  minorities and human rights, and 
75         WHEREAS, the Turkish government’s current treatment of the 
76  Ecumenical Patriarchate is inconsistent with the membership 
77  conditions and goals of the European Union, and 
78         WHEREAS, Orthodox Christians in this state and throughout 
79  the United States stand to lose their spiritual leader because 
80  of the continued actions of the Turkish government, and 
81         WHEREAS, the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the 
82  Order of St. Andrew the Apostle, a group of laymen who each have 
83  been honored with a patriarchal title, or “offikion,” by the 
84  Ecumenical Patriarch for their outstanding service to the 
85  Orthodox Church, will send an American delegation to Turkey to 
86  meet with Turkish government officials, as well as the United 
87  States Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, regarding the 
88  Turkish government’s treatment of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, 
89  NOW, THEREFORE, 
90 
91  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 
92 
93         That the Congress of the United States is urged to 
94  encourage the Government of Turkey to: 
95         (1) Uphold and safeguard religious and human rights without 
96  compromise. 
97         (2) Cease its discrimination of the Ecumenical 
98  Patriarchate. 
99         (3) Grant the Ecumenical Patriarch appropriate 
100  international recognition, ecclesiastic succession, and the 
101  right to train clergy of all nationalities. 
102         (4) Respect the property rights and human rights of the 
103  Ecumenical Patriarchate. 
104         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be 
105  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the 
106  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the 
107  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of 
108  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.