The anti-religious campaign of communist Romania was initiated by the People's Republic of Romania and continued by the Socialist Republic of Romania, which under the doctrine of Marxist–Leninist atheism took a hostile stance against religion and set its sights on the ultimate goal of an atheistic society wherein religion would be recognized as the ideology of the bourgeoisie.
Scope Romania's communist government achieved an incredible degree of control (relative to the other Eastern Bloc nations) of the nation's largest religious community: the Romanian Orthodox Church. This control was used to foster political support for the regime as well as to influence Romania's image abroad.
In Romania, more than 5,000 Orthodox Christian priests were imprisoned. The Orthodox archdiocese of Cluj contains biographies of 1,700 church personnel jailed.January 23, 1999, issue of the London Tablet by Jonathen Luxmoore, Published by The Chesterton Review Feb/May 1999
1945–1965 Cultural background The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in accordance with Marxist–Leninist interpretation of history, saw religion as a capitalist remnant that would inevitably disappear as its social base disappeared.Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu. The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratisation. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 8 (Dec. 2000), pp. 1467-1488
The Romanian Orthodox Church had a long history of submitting to the rule of foreign rulers, and when the Romanian Communist Party took power after the Soviet Union occupied Romania, the communists used this tradition to their advantage. The Romanian People's Republic was officially installed on December 30, 1947, and the Romanian Orthodox Church found collaboration with the new state to be beneficial to it. This collaboration, led to Romania taking a different path towards anti-religious work than in the Soviet Union, because the regime found the submissive church to be a very effective tool in maintaining power.Lucian N. Leuștean. Constructing Communism in the Romanian People's Republic. Orthodoxy and State, 1948–49. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 59, No. 2 (March 2007), pp. 303–329 Therefore, while the state saw religion as something that would not have a permanent place in their future vision for Romania, they nevertheless saw it as a very important tool in the short-term when many Romanians adhered to religious beliefs. Nevertheless, up until 1965, the state made considerable efforts at weakening the church's role in society, abolished previous privileges granted to it and eliminated its educational and charitable activities.
Centralizing around the Romanian Orthodox church As a result of Romania's re-enlargement at the end of World War II, with the restitution of Northern Transylvania after the nullification of the Second Vienna Award, non-Orthodox ethnic minorities became more numerous. Rivalries developed in the different religious groups and the government used this to its own advantage by letting the Romanian Orthodox church to strengthen its position in society in exchange for giving greater communist control over the church.Religion in Eastern Europe." United States Department of State Bulletin 86 (1986)
Abolishing of the Uniate Eastern Catholic Church In 1948 the government abolished the Uniate Eastern Catholic churches (the second largest religious grouping in Romania, holding 1.5 million people in 1948John M. Kramer. The Vatican's "Ostpolitik". The Review of Politics, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1980), pp. 283-308) and forcibly integrated them into the Romanian Orthodox Church; this followed from a similar measure employed by Joseph Stalin against Ukrainian Catholics in the USSR shortly after the end of the war. The measure was presented as a popular movement that began within the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches (a small group of 37 priests from the Eastern Rite churches signed a document approving the union, all of whom were then excommunicated by the Eastern Rite bishop), and was hailed as bringing freedom to the people in achieving national unity. The Patriarch welcomed the new union and supported the government's decision.
In the first week after this new union was made, six Uniate bishops and 25 Uniate priests were arrested for their opposition to the change. The government initially feared putting them on trial, due to the mass reactions as had followed similar arrests in Bulgaria and Hungary, and instead they were placed under house arrest. They were later moved to the notorious Sighet Prison, wherein more clergy would join them. It is known that 11 Uniate bishops died in prison. The Uniate church was completely outlawed; many of its members that chose not to join the Orthodox Church either continued to operate underground or instead joined the (still legal) Latin Rite Catholics in Romania. All Uniate properties and churches were confiscated and (most of them) handed over to the Orthodox community.
A total of 400 priests in the Eastern Catholic churches were killed by the state. Over 2,000 Eastern Catholic churches were seized (most of which were never returned by the Romanian Orthodox church even after Communism fell).Liviu Andreescu. The Construction of Orthodox Churches in Post-Communist Romania. Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 59, No. 3 (May, 2007), pp. 451-480
Legal actions taken against the religious institutions The 1927 concordat with the Vatican was abolished, and all Catholic schools were seized by the state. The Vatican was treated as a threat to Romania. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej claimed:
The Pope will undoubtedly find occasion to assail our constitution because it does not tally with the Vatican's tendencies, which are to interfere in the internal concerns of various countries under the pretext of evangelizing the Catholic faithful […] Who knows whether the Vatican will not consider anathematising us on the pretext that our constitution does not provide for the submission of our fellow countrymen of Catholic persuasion to the political interests of the Vatican or because we do not allow ourselves to be tempted by America's golden calf, to the feet of which the Vatican would bring its faithful
Following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union, the regime outlawed institutions of religious education for the general populace. Article 27 of the 1948 Constitution stated:
Freedom of conscience and freedom of religious worship shall be guaranteed by the State. Religious denominations shall be free to organise themselves and may freely function, provided that their ritual and practice are not contrary to the constitution, public security and morals. No religious denomination, congregation, or community may open or maintain institutions for general education, but may only operate special theological schools for training ministers necessary to their religious service under State control. The Romanian Orthodox Church is autocephalous and unitary in its organisation. The method of organisation and the functioning of the religious denominations will be established by law.
The Ministry of Education ordered the removal of religious objects from schools (including many icons), and replaced them with pictures of communist leaders. The anti-religious work in the schools was resisted by parents who did not send their children to the schools at the beginning of the school year and by teachers who defied instructions by asking the students to pray. The Securitate also found that many Communist activists were people of religious belief. The Orthodox church in Romania, in order to make a compromise with the state's anti-religious work, asked for the schools to return the icons to the churches.
In theory, religious denominations were permitted to organize and function, but in practice the regime found many ways to suppress those who threatened 'public security'. Legislation was passed that took control of all aspects of religious life, required all religious denominations to have central organizations that required state approval, forbade the organization of political parties on confessional bases, and that all religious leaders needed to be registered and approved by the government. The Orthodox church was forced to close its seminaries and retained only three institutes for theological instruction, a seminary for monks and two seminaries for nuns; Roman Catholics and Protestants were each allowed one seminary. Government inspectors were designated for the church, and church publications were reduced as well as censored.
The Romanian academy was reorganized and several important religious figures were removed from membership. In 1949, a faction of the Orthodox church known as the 'Army of the Lord' (Oastea Domnului) was outlawed.
Appointment of a supportive Orthodox Patriarch The Romanian Orthodox Patriarch, Nicodim, had not opposed the post-war installation of the new regime, however, he had been reticent about the rise of Communism and proved to be an obstacle in the regime's initial attempts at taking control of the church. On February 27, 1948, he died under unexplained circumstances; during the following months when a new Patriarch was to be chosen, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina (who was thought to be Nicodim's successor) also died under unexplained circumstances, on April 5, 1948. Metropolitan Justinian Marina, a bishop who had published a new doctrine for the church called the 'Social Apostolate' that forged cooperation between the church and the government, was then named the new Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Romania. From this point onwards in the history of the People's Republic of Romania, the regime controlled the Patriarchate and ensured that only candidates loyal to them would occupy the post.
The Communists gained complete control of the church, and began persecuting its membership, while the hierarchy turned a blind eye towards this and even cooperated through using its resources to assist the state in its terror campaign against targeted members; the hierarchy denied the existence of persecution. The Communists were permitted to choose who served in the church, who was admitted to seminary and even what the sermon content would be.Ediger, Ruth M. "History of an institution as a factor for predicting church institutional behavior: the cases of the Catholic Church in Poland, the Orthodox Church in Romania, and the Protestant churches in East Germany." East European Quarterly 39.3 (2005) The national clerical bodies' elections were dominated by the party who imposed its own candidates and filled clerical bodies with people loyal to the party. Priests who were opposed to the Communists were removed (the church hierarchy itself could even dismiss them). The bishops openly criticized the West and praised the political achievements of the Soviet Union; the pastoral letters of Patriarch Justinian often had strong political messages that criticized the West as well as Roman Catholics.Lucian N. Leustean. Between Moscow and London: Romanian Orthodoxy and National Communism, 1960–1965. The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 85, No. 3 (Jul., 2007), pp. 491–521 A new theology was taught by the church which joined Marxist–Leninist ideology and Orthodox teachings.
These changes in the church were presented to the public eye, not as an attempt by the state to control the church, but rather a popular decision among the nation's Christians to embrace communism.
Symbiotic relationship between the Romanian Orthodox church and the state