Reconstructing the Cohesion of Religious Communities in the Context of Atheist Policies in Communist

Abstract

In Communist Romania, although atheism was the official state policy, religious life was not completely suppressed. The Romanian Orthodox Church continued to operate with an organizational status recognized by the communist state, maintaining an administrative-territorial structure arranged according to its own canons. Theological institutes of university level and seminaries did not lose their theological, pastoral, and
socio-vocational significance. Theological journals, liturgical books, and religious works continued to be published regularly, although all of this occurred within a socio-political framework discreetly monitored by the authorities. At the same time, religious communities felt the ideological pressure of the atheist state, manifested through anti-religious education in schools and attempts to desacralize everyday life. In the early
years of the communist regime, some clergy and believers were investigated, arrested, and sentenced for their religious and confessional activities, which the authorities perceived as subversive. In this tense context, the cohesion of religious communities was rebuilt through a balance between institutional survival and the preservation of an authentic spiritual life, often expressed in discreet forms but charged with depth and inner resistance.