A/51/542/Add.1 English Page 14 1. Christian minorities 56. The Special Rapporteur looked into the question of the Catholic and Protestant minorities and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.1 (a) Catholic minority (i) Religion Known religion and legal recognition 57. The Catholic religion is seen as a known religion. There is no special law recognizing that it possesses legal personality under public law. The third London Protocol (1830) dealt in the first place with the position of the Roman Catholic Church in Greece. Under that Protocol, France, which had provided protection for Catholics during the Ottoman domination, relinquished that role in the liberated Greek territories to the future sovereign of the emerging State and, in addition, it was provided that the Roman Catholic Church would be able to manifest its belief freely and publicly; that its property would be guaranteed; that its bishops would retain the totality of their functions and would enjoy the rights and privileges they had enjoyed under the patronage of the kings of France; and that the property which had belonged to former French missions or French establishments would be recognized and respected. Protocol No. 33 (1830), which followed, provided that the privileges enjoyed by the Catholics could not impose obligations on the Hellenic Government which might be prejudicial to the dominant religion. After the ratification of the Treaty of Sèvres (1923), on the protection of minorities in Greece, the prevailing opinion in Greek doctrine and judicial practice is that the London Protocol ceased to be in force. That interpretation is said to give rise to problems for the Catholic Church, in particular with respect to the official recognition of prelates, the creation of new dioceses, and so forth. Last, the See of Athens, dating from 1850, is not officially recognized and neither is the Archbishop, despite the fact that the Catholic Church is a known religion in Greece. Religious activities, places of worship and religious objects 58. On the subject of places of worship, in addition to the problem of legal recognition mentioned above, the Catholic Church is said to encounter numerous difficulties in obtaining building permits by reason of the Necessity Acts. In fact, the Orthodox Church is said to block or delay the procedure by exerting pressure on the Ministry of Education and Worship. For example, at Aspra Spitia, for the church of St. Joseph, serving the Catholic workforce of the Péchiney factory, the local Metropolitan is said to have demanded of the Catholic Archbishopric in 1980 that the church should never be used by Greek Uniate Catholics. Following the refusal of the Catholic authority, the entire procedure for the building of the church was halted. Construction plans had to be amended and submitted to the Commission on the Construction of Orthodox Churches. It was only possible to make a start on building work one year later. The Ministry of Justice stated that the opinion of the local Metropolitan was not binding on the Ministry of Education and Worship and recalled the established practice of the Council of State in that connection. /...