Orthodox Church in the Socialist Republic of Romania

The church began to cooperate with the new communist authorities of Romania, wanting not only to preserve its educational and cultural influence on the country's inhabitants, but also to protect its property from possible confiscation in favor of the state ^[7] . At the same time, the Romanian Orthodox Church remained a potential target for blackmail: almost all the priests who worked with the political leadership of Socialist Romania were supporters of the Romanian monarchy and members of the fascist Iron Guard movement ^[8] .

Association of Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches

The Romanian Greek Catholic Church owned about 1725 churches, the number of its parishioners was more than 1.5 million people ^[9] . Despite the fact that its church ceremonies were largely similar to the Orthodox, the Greek Catholics had a serious dislike of the idea of ​​unification with the Orthodox Church, considering this association to be imposed by the Communists, and supported cooperation with Western countries. This led to the beginning of repression by the state and the church, which sought to suppress the pro-Western mood of Greek Catholics ^[10] . The government soon proclaimed Greek Catholic law, calling their church "anti-national and anti-historical" and accused of trying to split the nation ^[9] . On December 1, 1948 , the Romanian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated, and all its churches and cathedrals were transferred to the Romanian Orthodox Church. The clergy were forced to recognize the actual accession of the Greek Catholic Church to the Orthodox, but some agreed to this only under pressure from the Securitate ^[9] . Of the 1800 Greek Catholic clergymen, 430 left their signatures in a statement recognizing the association of churches ^[11] . The number of parishioners of the Romanian Orthodox Church has grown due to the hundreds of thousands of Greek Catholics who converted to Orthodoxy ^[9] .

The Red Patriarch Justinian

Justinian (John Marina in the world) was elected Patriarch of Romania in 1948, when communist power was already established in the country. He made an attempt to instill in the Romanian Orthodox Church a communist worldview ( dialectical materialism ), proving that the communist system of society does not contradict the aspirations of the Orthodox Church and that cooperation with the communist authorities is not something bad ^[2] . His work on the problems of communism and the church was published under the title Apostolat Social , in which he argued that socialism is an integral part of Christianity ^[12] . The church rendered great assistance in the campaign to combat illiteracy in the country, forcing even the rectors of the monasteries to engage in socially useful activities, which was the time of enlightenment ^[13] . However, Justinian did not mention the victims of reprisals in his letters ^[2] , as a result of which many believers (mainly former Greek Catholics who converted to Orthodoxy) began to call him “puppet” and “opportunist”, and also accuse him of wanting to curry favor with the authorities ^{[ 13]} . It was under Justinian that the church began to get involved in politics so often that even Romanian theologians began to call the World Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church the tools of "Anglo-American imperialism." In the 1960s, after the start of a peculiar Romanian “thaw”, the church abandoned further attacks and rushed to the ecumenism movement ^[4] .

National Question

The Orthodox Church supported any nationalist movements in the interwar years: fascists and radical nationalists with anti-Semitic convictions were especially close to them, as a result of which the number of priests members of the Iron Guard was then large ^[14] . The Orthodox writer and theologian Nikifor Krajnik in his journal “Gindirya” fiercely defended the thesis of the unity of nationalist ideology and the Orthodox worldview ^[14] , and the philosopher Nae Ionescu and the famous Romanian theologian of the 20th century Dumitru Steniloe defended the thesis “to be Romanian means to be Orthodox” ^[15] . After the Communists came to power, the new government rejected the “Iron Guard” vision of nationalism and turned to proletarian nationalism. However, under George Gheorghiu-Dej , who led the country in the early 1960s, the government began to turn more often to a Christian worldview ^[8] . Relying on educational and enlightening activities, the government, with the help of the church, began to disseminate the country's historical theory of the origin of Romanians from the ancient Dacians. The Romanian theologian and historian Mircea Pacuraru, following this theory, wrote in history textbooks that the Apostle Andrei himself converted to Orthodoxy ^[16] .

Patriarchs Justin and Theoctist

From 1977 to 1986, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church was Patriarch Justin (Moisescu). During his tenure at the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, he led various synodal delegations to other Churches (including the Russian Orthodox Church ), and also paid attention to publishing in the country, establishing a collection of books Părinți și scriitori bisericești and approving a new synodal translation of the Bible in 1982 (including the New Testament in 1979). Under Justin, a number of cathedrals and monasteries were restored in the country ^[17] .

Patriarch Theoktist (in the world Theodore Arepashu) was elected after the death of Justin. The communist government did not object to such actions, since it saw in it a reliable ally prone to compromises ^[18] . Theoctist was one of those who supported Ceausescu's politics - even events such as the demolition of churches as part of a "systematization" policy and the fight against dissident priests ^[18] . After he was silent about the demolition of 22 churches in Bucharest and did not even respond, he was called a pro-government puppet ^[18] . In public speeches, Theoctist often read out texts of laudatory letters and telegrams to Ceausescu, and also praised his achievements as head of the Socialist Republic of Romania ^[18] .

Romanian Revolution and Its Consequences

After the protests began in Timisoara on December 19, 1989, Theoktist sent a telegram to Ceausescu congratulating him on his re-election as General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and praising his “brilliant vigorous activity”, “wise leadership” and “bold thinking” ^[18] , as well as calling him the rule of the "golden age" of the country ^[19] . But when the protests swept across the country, Theoktist sided with the rebels and the National Salvation Front , and Ceausescu turned into "Herod of our time" ^[20] . On January 18, 1990, Theoktist was forced to apologize to the believers for having deceived them all these years and fiercely defended Ceausescu, unable to fight his power. Due to his health and age, he resigned ^[20] , but three months later, upon urgent request, returned to the post of Patriarch. Theoktist later said that he wrote telegrams at the direction of the party and never reflected his personal opinion in them ever ^[20] .

Despite the facts about the cooperation of priests with the Securitate , the scale of the cooperation of priests and their influence on the activities of the Romanian secret police have not yet been evaluated, since many documents are not declassified in Romania and many state archives are not open for public access ^[21] . Some priests reported information from representatives of various faiths directly to the state police, and although the church denied this, public discontent and the level of distrust of the church grew. So, in collaboration with the Securitate, Metropolitan Nikolay Banatsky confessed, who allegedly issued five dissidents (including Gheorghe Kalchu-Dumitryasa ) ), To get a higher rank ^[22] . According to estimates, with a Romanian population of 23 million, the number of Securitate agents ranged from 400 thousand to 1 million ^[21] . There are no reliable data on the profession of informants; therefore, the exact share of priests among agents cannot be established ^[6] . However, according to the testimony of a clergyman from the governor of Galati, of all the priests of his governor, one or two of the forces refused to work with the Securitate. A former Securitate officer in Timisoara, Roland Vasilevich, who was once charged with recruiting priests, claimed that between 80% and 90% of the clergy collaborated with the secret police ^[6] and that they were engaged in ideological and political training with the priests, inculcating nationalist and xenophobic moods ^[23] . Later, these people went abroad, collecting information, which the state then used in its propaganda ^[23] . Moreover, all the priests who were engaged in cultural and educational activities in the western ringleaders of Romania were the same agents of the Securitate who wrote mandatory reports about their activities ^[23] .

The Orthodox Church cooperated quite closely with the authorities, depriving the clergy or office of everyone who did not support official politics. Among Orthodox priests, there were few true supporters of communist power, and among foreign denominations they were almost nonexistent. Protestants expressed a particular hatred of the authorities ^[24] : for example, the case of George Kalchu-Dumitryas, who opposed state atheism and an authoritarian system in Bucharest, was one of the acts of disobedience. He was dismissed from the Orthodox seminary, and in 1979 he was sentenced to 10 years for “fascist propaganda” ^[25] . In 1985, under foreign pressure, Romania freed him, and he moved to the south-east of Romania to the village, and then completely left the country ^[24] . Until 1987, the demolition of churches in Bucharest did not cause censure among the Orthodox Church, until Ion Dura, sent to Benelux countries to meet with Romanian communities, wrote an open letter to the World Council of Churches, calling for stopping the demolition of churches and the Patriarch’s palace within the framework of “ systematization ”Ceausescu, but his request remained unanswered ^[19] .

Under Justinian, favorable reforms began in more than 200 Romanian monasteries: monks began to join in secular life. Somewhere agricultural cooperatives appeared, and somewhere workshops. The number of monks in the country rose to 7 thousand by 1956 after these measures ^[13] . In 1958, after the departure of Soviet troops, the Communist Party suddenly began to treat the monasteries, calling them possible nests of the anti-state opposition, and monks began to be monitored. From 1958 to 1963, more than 2 and a half thousand monks were arrested on charges of counter-revolutionary activity, and half of the monasteries were closed ^[4] . In 1959, the Holy Synod confirmed the state’s orders to close three monastery seminaries, and in 1966, nuns under the age of 40 and monks under the age of 55 were ordered to leave the monasteries for “socially useful” work, as the authorities called the worldly work ^[26] . Until the end of the reign of Ceausescu, monasticism was under pressure, but there was no active repression against him ^[26] .

After 1989, the Romanian Orthodox Church tried to explain its actions: Patriarch Theoctistus argued that her cooperation was justified by the desire to preserve religion as such in the country ^[27] , but he added that every citizen of the country somehow cooperated ^{[27] ]} . Bishop Ploiesti Nifon , following the principle "the end justifies the means", he said that the church fought to preserve not only religion in the country, but also to preserve the number of churches, as well as against nationalization and confiscation of church property, which forced the church to support the authorities. Criticism, he said, was not addressed to the church just because the authorities quickly dealt with all opponents of the church ^[27] .

• Dennis Deletant. Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989. - ME Sharpe, London, 1995. - ISBN 1-56324-633-3 .
• Lucian N. Leuștean. Orthodoxy and the Cold War: Religion and Political Power in Romania, 1947-65. - Palgrave Macmillan, 1995 .-- ISBN 9780230218017 .
• Lucian Turcescu, Lavinia Stan. Religion and Politics in Post-Communist Romania. - Oxford University Press, 2007. - ISBN 978-0-19-530853-2 .
• Sabrina P. Ramet, Henry F. Carey. Church and State in Romania before and after 1989 // Romania Since 1989: Politics, Economics, and Society. - Lexington Books, 2004 .-- S. 278. - ISBN 0-7391-0592-2 .