E/CN.4/2004/63/Add.2 page 18 such as churches, and other property. To the Orthodox way of thinking, sacred property belongs to the community of believers. The Orthodox Church leaders point out that this is not the way the Roman Catholic Church sees it. Consequently, before an Orthodox church can be handed over to someone else, the entire community must give its consent. Given this requirement, a settlement through the courts is inconceivable to Orthodox leaders, since, according to them, “human justice cannot replace divine justice”. 3. Results of action by Greek Catholics 84. In the meantime, only 150 of the 2,600 churches claimed have actually been returned to Greek Catholics. Of these, 50 have been returned thanks to the personal commitment of Nicholae Corneanu, the Orthodox Bishop of Banat, who has been strongly criticized by the Orthodox hierarchy for promoting restitution. The other churches have been returned following court decisions or as a result of the reconversion of entire communities of Greek Catholics to their original faith. 85. In this context, members of the Greek Catholic community in Romania spoke to the Special Rapporteur of their deep despair and strongly criticized the attitude of the Romanian authorities for failing to intervene in cases of restitution. 86. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that a number of Greek Catholic churches had been illegally destroyed by Orthodox communities. This is allegedly the case of the Greek Catholic churches in Vadu Izei, Baisora, Smig, Tritenii de Jos and Craiova. Moreover, other churches were still threatened with destruction at the time of the Special Rapporteur’s visit. 87. With regard to other property confiscated from the Greek Catholic Church for the use of the State, the commission set up pursuant to the above-cited article 2 of Decree-Law No. 126/1990 has ceased to function and only 10 per cent of the property has been returned. Some of this property has even been sold to third parties as part of the process of privatization. 88. Finally, less than 20 per cent of the farmland and forests that belonged to the Greek Catholic Church have actually been returned to it, and some of them have reportedly been handed over illegally to the Orthodox Church. 4. The case of Ocna Mures 89. The events that took place in the parish of Ocna Mures, Transylvania, at the beginning of 2002 offer a remarkable illustration of the situation in which the Greek Catholic Church finds itself, even in cases where restitution has actually been granted by the courts. 90. The church in this parish, which had been Greek Catholic since the beginning of the nineteenth century, was confiscated in 1948 and ownership granted to the Orthodox community. After the revolution, in the absence of a negotiated settlement between the two churches, the Greek Catholic community went to court to claim its rights and was awarded ownership of the church by final decision of the appeal court in Alba Iulia in 1999. Two years later, the Greek Catholic community was granted actual possession of the church by another court decision and on 7 February 2002 members of the Greek Catholic Church in this parish returned to their church, some 54 years after it had been confiscated.