2024-04-15 04:02:58
“What does the church own – this is the question I asked my students. I write a six to the one who gave me an answer. No one could give an answer to this question,” says Prof. Nikolchev to bTV.
What kind of assets does a single church in the Sofia Metropolitanate have – the Dragalevo Monastery “Assumption of the Virgin Mary”?
In the property register of the monastery, there are only the properties in the property register, on the lots of which there have been changes and movements after 1998. In the register, we find that the monastery has updated the impressive over 150 acres in the newest and most aggressively built-up district of Sofia and Bulgaria “Monastery meadows”.
In fact, “Monastery meadows” turn out to be the former meadows of the Dragalev Monastery. That’s where their name comes from. Where until the 1930s the clergy grazed their cattle and thus supported themselves, today the land costs on the market between BGN 1,000 and 3,000 per square meter. Over 150 decares of land is enough to build at least 100 blocks.
And here the question arises why for years there were no kindergartens, schools and even streets? And why didn’t the church donate at least a small portion of its land to the children of this newest neighborhood back in the years?
“Let’s ask the question where is the social activity of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. This is part of its social function. Should the state pour money into an institution that does not fulfill its public function?” Goran Blagoev asks again.
The more than 150 decares of the monastery’s meadows are only part of the property of the Dragalev Monastery. According to the register, the temple also owns a total of hundreds of acres of land in Dragalevtsi, over 40 acres of plots in “Krastova Vada” around Cherni Vrah Blvd., and also in the “Vitosha” and “Simeonovo” districts, as well as another 60 acres in The cinema center.
The Dragalev Monastery also owns apartments on “Rhodopski Izvor” street, including maisonettes.
“The monastery had some property and the one who built this block is indemnifying them. They rent them out. To which people, under what conditions – it’s not clear,” says a woman living in an entrance where there are church apartments
It is clear from a priest in the Dragalevsky monastery that a nun deals with the properties.
“Are reports being made about this? The properties of the church… There are such things there that are not to be talked about. Because I don’t want to put my head in the bag. This is serious business, not for everyone. I’m in a meeting right now and we can’t talk about these issues,” the nun said.
There is no answer from the Holy Synod to the question about the properties. The market valuations of the hundreds of decare plots of monastery properties in “Lozenets”, “Manastirski livadi”, “Vitosha”, “Simeonovo” are between several hundred million and 1 billion BGN. For most, it is difficult to determine who is using it and under what conditions.
“Everything under the table. The money is probably divided among the dioceses. I can’t know that,” says Prof. Nikolchev.
On two properties, which were marked as church property in December 2021, a huge complex is being built today in the “Monastirski Livadi” district. From the building permits, we understand that 13,272 square meters of built-up area will be built on one piece of land, and on the other plot – 1856 sq. m built-up area.
“It is very interesting that the Holy Synod, when it is not profitable for him, says: “No, no, leave us, we are separated from the state by the Constitution”, but in this case of payment of salaries by the state, from the state budget to the priesthood, there is no problem. In fact, this is money of the Bulgarian taxpayer, who pays salaries to something that is supposedly separated from the state,” adds Assoc. Nikolchev.
Who in the Holy Synod controls these revenues and expenses?
“That is why I asked the question why the synod did not introduce the register of its properties. Why did the Bulgarian Orthodox Church not introduce the practice, which existed until September 9, 1944, of publishing the annual budget reports of the Holy Synod”, notes Goran Blagoev.
According to him, for this year alone, the budget allocated 38.4 million subsidies to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Recently, the state allocated BGN 3.5 million to the taxpayers for the completion of the church in South Park in Sofia – exactly in the area around which the same church owns and operates properties worth at least hundreds of millions.
If the register of church properties is introduced, the day it becomes public, we will probably realize that there is no corporation on the territory of our country that even comes close in terms of capitalization to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.