The Democratic Appearances of Decree No. 177 of 1948 on the General Regime of Religious Denominations

Abstract

The communization of Romanian society, in the early post-war years, meant the dismantling of historical parties, the abolition of the monarchy, the elimination of private property and the destruction of religious life. In the field of religion, invoking the theory of "capitalist encirclement", the relations of local religious denominations with foreign churches (mainly the Holy See) were restricted. The communist power then eliminated the "Catholic enemy" through an apparent liberalization of the regime of religious denominations and their formal equalization (contrary to the old inter-war policy of the prevalence of national Orthodox and Uniate churches). Decree No. 177 of August 4, 1948, amending the 1928 law on religious denominations, facilitated the procedure of transfer from one religious denomination to another and the transfer of assets along with the parishioners, according to a majority criterion. Using this method, wrapped in a false "quantitative" democracy, combined with administrative pressure on clergy and parishioners and the obligation to "reauthorize" all cults, the communist authorities abolished the Romanian Church United with Rome by a decree that did not explicitly name it.