Penza, 27 November 2013. PenzaNews. First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Communist party, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the region Georgy Kamnev sent a petition to the head of Penza Yuri Alpatov and deputies of the City Duma to vote against the transfer of some parts of eight schools’ buildings to the religious organization “Penza Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchy).”

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

“According to the Constitution, Russia is a secular state. Based on this fact, the church must be separated from the state. Thus, giving school premises to the church is a direct violation of the Constitution. Also, by the decision to give school premises to ROC, you actually violate the Article 14 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which says than no religion may be established as a state religion. In our case, the bias is in favor of one religion. For information, according to Rosstat, only 41% of people in Russia consider themselves Orthodox. We think that the infringement of other religions can lead to inter-religious conflicts,” Georgy Kamnev’s appeal states.

The communist expressed bewilderment, why with active building of business incubators and techno parks in the Penza region there are no interest groups at schools.

“How do plans for technological development of the region correlate with the fact that religion, not science, will be taught in schools?” the deputy of the Legislative Assembly asked.

According to Georgy Kamnev, recumbence on faith but not on knowledge can hardly help pupils succeed in modern life.

“I am asking you to again analyze the arguments and to vote against the proposal to allocate premises of eight schools in gratuitous use of the religious organization “Penza Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church,” the press service of the Regional Committee of the Communist party quotes the leader of Penza communists.

As new agency PenzaNews reported earlier, the issue of the transfer of some parts of the school buildings to the Penza Eparchy will be considered during the 56th session of the City Duma, which will be held on Friday, November 29.

The information, appeared in media, provoked controversial reaction in the society. In particular, representatives of some nonprofit organizations demanded to explain the reason for premises allocation to the religious organization and coordinate the decision with residents of the Penza region.