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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Agreement on return of civil registries to Roman Catholic Church signed

Belgrade, 7 July 2011

The Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government signed today with the Roman Catholic Church the Agreement on the return of civil registries confiscated on the basis of the Law on civil registries from 1946.

Stanislav Hocevar, left, and Milan Markovic

Minister Milan Markovic said after the signing of the agreement with Belgrade Archbishop and Metropolitan Stanislav Hocevar that there are around 3,000 civil registries, the oldest of which date back from 1716 and 1718.

More specifically, there are 2921 civil registries, including 1198 registries of births, 950 of deaths, 709 of marriages and 61 collective books, the Minister said, adding that some of them are ruined because they were kept in the cellars of some municipalities.

Markovic said that he expects the books to be returned to archbishoprics of the Roman Catholic Church in Serbia within one year.

Registries will be stored according to archival standards, he said, adding that experts are trying to renovate some of the damaged books which the post-war government confiscated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1946 in order to copy them, but it never gave them back.

Archbishop Hocevar said that the registries will be returned to all dioceses – of Belgrade, Subotica, Zrenjanin and Srem, as well as to apostolic administrations in Prizren and Pristina.

These are exquisite cultural goods, Hocevar underlined and added that the Roman Catholic Church will treat them as such.