• Albania
    2010 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • LEGAL RECOGNITION AT LAST!

      Over the next weeks, the brothers spent many hours with lawyers and officials, trying to get the Kingdom-preaching work legally registered. A group of brothers and interested persons in Tiranë had already submitted a formal request, but a new government had come to power, so persistence was needed.

      “Everything was done on foot,” recalls one brother. “While walking in the city, we would happen to meet the minister of human rights, the minister of the interior, the minister of justice, the chief of police, members of the constitutional court, and other influential men. These men were kind and were pleased that things were loosening up. Most of them already knew about the ungjillorë. There was no doubt that Jehovah’s Witnesses were alive and active in Albania.”

      For weeks, officials had said that the government would grant legal recognition to Jehovah’s Witnesses, but nothing materialized. There was a breakthrough, though, when Angelo Felio, a brother from the United States with Albanian background, visited his family in Tiranë. While in Albania, Angelo went with the brothers to meet with the legal adviser of the government minister who was authorized to grant legalization. The adviser was happy to learn that Angelo’s family was from her region of Albania.

      “What village is your family from?” she asked Angelo. Amazingly, it was her own village.

      “What is your family’s name?” she asked.

      Surprisingly, Angelo turned out to be her relative, but their families had lost contact many years earlier.

      “I was already impressed by your charter and planned to help,” she said. “But now, I am obliged to help because you are family!”

      A few days later, the legal adviser handed the brothers Order No. 100, granting legal recognition to Jehovah’s Witnesses in Albania. At last, the worship of the true God, Jehovah, which had been under ban since 1939, was now legally recognized and unrestricted! “There are no words to describe the feelings we had in our hearts that day,” the DiGregorios said.