Soviet Religious Freedom Bill Passed

Soviet churches won the right Monday to establish their own schools and engage in charity work in the final passage of a broad-based religious bill ending seven decades of state atheism.

But members of the Supreme Soviet, in separate votes, rejected proposals to allow religious services in the military and to permit state classrooms to be used for religious instruction after normal school hours.

Despite not getting everything he wanted, Patriarch Alexei II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, praised the new law, “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations,” as a major step in the church’s rebirth.

“For the first time, the law gives the church the possibility of engaging in extensive charity work and bringing up children of all ages in the spirit of morality and faith,” the prelate said.

Under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, all churches and religions have enjoyed a resurgence. The Russian Orthodox Church, the dominant religion, has reopened hundreds of churches.

Although the deputies adopted the law on religion in principle last Wednesday by a vote of 344-1, they did not hammer out the details that explain what the legislation specifically guarantees and forbids.