South Africa Allows Scientology Weddings

The government of South Africa has ruled that marriages performed in that country by 12 ministers of the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology will be legal.

The decision by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs was announced in Los Angeles by the Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International. Jentzsch said the announcement came three weeks after Sweden recognized Scientology churches as “religious communities.”

“This sets a trend for religious recognition for religious minorities internationally,” Jentzsch said. “I think it’s a very positive thing.”

The church’s spokesman in South Africa, Paul Sondergaard, said the decision also was an acknowledgment of work he said the church has done in South Africa in the fields of literacy, drug education and criminal rehabilitation.