Communist Persecution against Christianity
Zagreb - December 4, 2009
It is widely agreed among historians that the most dramatic and sanguinary
time in the history of mankind was the 20th Century 1: that is, the Century of
totalitarian regimes, World Wars, world–wide Revolutions, genocide and religious
persecutions. Among those, the most extensive and systematic was carried out by
Communism against Christianity, thus becoming the paradigm of criminal initiative
in the 20th Century.
The Black Book of Communism edited by Stéphane Courtois2, lifted the veil
which was drawn over the crimes of Communism, giving us a first rough estimate of
85 million dead, counting the October Revolution, the Stalinist dictatorship, the
Chinese Revolution, the Cambodia of Pol Pot, and the Cuba of Fidel Castro. This
figure should, however, be at least doubled, if we consider that in China alone, the
Communist regime was responsible of more than 80 million deaths alone in the
period of the so-called “Great Leap Forward”, devised by Mao and implemented
between 1958 and 19613.
The real problem is, however, not the quantity but the ideological “quality” of
this crime. An analysis of this phenomenon which only limits itself to describing the
consequences on the practical level, without going deeply into researching its
ideological causes, just contributes to make even deeper the mystery which surrounds
Communism. In order to unravel this mystery, one must start, first of all, from its
inherent hatred of religion, which Pope Pius XI denounced in his 1937 Encyclical
entitled Divini Redemptoris4, where he writes that “ for the first time in history we
are witnessing a battle being waged, which was coldly wished for, and carefully
1
2
Alain Besançon, Le malheur du siècle, Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris 1998.
Stéphane Courtois, Le livre noir du communisme, Robert Laffont, Paris 1998.
3
Il libro rosso dei martiri cinesi, edited by Gerolamo Fazzini, Foreword by card. Joseph Zen ZeKiun, Bishop of Hong Kong, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo 2006.
4
Pio XI, Encyclical Divini Redemptoris, 19 March 1937.
prepared by man, against all that is divine” .
Theorists of Communism, in fact, never hid their hatred towards religion. Marx
and Engels defined it as the “opium of the people” 5; Lenin calls it “ alcohol for the
spirit” 6; and Gramsci defines it as “ mere narcotics for the masses” 7. “Scientific
Socialism” should however not be judged on the basis of theoretical statements, but
rather on its practical consequences, since it is necessary for philosophers always to
prove the validity of their thoughts8, as Marx himself explains.
From the juridical point of view, Communism sees religion as explained in
Article 124 of the Soviet Constitution of 1936, according to which “ the freedom to
practice any kind of religious cult and that of anti-religious propaganda are granted to
all citizens” 9. Religion and Atheism are not on the same level. Religious freedom is,
in fact, limited to private practice, to each individual’s choice, and, therefore, as a
matter of fact, severely thwarted. Atheism, instead, has the right to propaganda and to
the support of the State; it can, therefore, easily expand into the public space, while
religion must slowly die away, also because the Communist regime denies the private
dimension of the individual in favour of the primacy of the community and society as
a whole.
Militant atheism was, in fact, the main force behind the Soviet system.
Everything that belonged to the Church, not only real estate or goods, but also
seminaries, schools, orphanages and hospitals were nationalized. The teaching of
religion was forbidden, as well as the use of clearly religious symbols such as icons
and crosses, even on tombs. All religious functions and public displays such as
christenings, marriages and funerals had to be depleted of all religious references and
meaning. Cathedrals, churches and chapels became stables for animals, warehouses,
factories and cinemas.
Anti-religious “Carnivals” were organized exactly at the time when the most
important religious celebrations of the year occurred. Anti–religious films were
produced and Atheism Museums created, often in what were formerly Churches. The
teaching and studying of Atheism was made obligatory in all Universities and schools
5
Karl Marx, Sulla religione, Editori Riuniti, Rome 1969, p. 29.
6
Vladimir I. Lenin, Scritti sulla religione, Feltrinelli Reprint, Rome 1949, p. 4.
7
Antonio Gramsci, Quaderni dal carcere, Einaudi, Torino 1975, p. 1389.
8
Karl Marx, Tesi su Feuerbach (1845) II tesi.
9
See Igor Safarevic, La legislazione religiosa dell’Urss, Edizioni Paoline, Rome 1976,
of any order and degree in the country. In 1970, there were 4,500 radio stations in the
Soviet Union which were spreading atheist propaganda, including the Radio of the
Association of Militant Atheists which was broadcasting in 14 languages on all
Soviet frequencies10 .
The Russian Orthodox Church before 1917 counted about 210,000 members of
the clergy divided between monks and priests, and in the Years of Terror, between
1917 and 1941, 150,000 of them were killed. In 1917 there were 300 Russian
Orthodox Bishops, and 250 of them were killed by the Bolsheviks. Similarly,
following the fall of the Russian Empire, in 1917, Catholics were around 2 and a half
millions, their bishops 14, their priests 1350, and their churches around 600. But in
1941 only two Catholic churches were still open, one in Moscow and one in
Leningrad (both belonging to the French Embassy there), and there were in the whole
country only 1 Bishop and 20 priests living in relative freedom. In fact, 300 Catholic
priests had been killed and the remainder obliged to emigrate to other countries 11. The
propaganda continued after Stalin’s death (1953) with Khrushchev and those who
succeeded him. The Ilicev Report on Education to Atheism published in November
1963, once again insisted on the impossibility of religion and science co–existing and
stressed the necessity of implementing a consistent system of scientific atheist
education12. “ In a short time” – Khrushchev explained – “religion will cease to exist,
people will forget what religion is, and I will show you the very last Catholic priest”
13.
The Yalta Conference marked the separation of Europe into two areas of
influence: with the approval of Western governments, Soviet Communism took over
completely all of Eastern Europe. A relentless persecution of Christians started,
therefore, also in all Eastern European countries.
We must now mention some of the outstanding Christian members of clergy
who dared to oppose Communism during those terrible years. Among the first, there
was the Uniate Archibishop of Lviv in Ukraine, Joseph Slipyi: when the Russians
offered him the possibility to become Orthodox Patriarch in Moscow in order to
10
P. Vyshkovskyy, OMI, Il martirio della Chiesa cattolica in Ucraina, Luci sull’Est, Roma 2007.
11
See Fiorenzo Emilio Reati, Dio dirà l’ultima parola. La persecuzione della Chiesa cattolica in
Russia in epoca sovietica, Arca edizioni, Lavis (TN) 2003.
12
L’educazione atea. Rapporto Ilicev alla Commissione ideologica del PCUS, Editori Riuniti, Rome
1964.
13
Nikita Kruscev, Kruscev ricorda, Sugar, Milan 1971, p. 254.
make him break ties with the Vatican in Rome, he refused preferring to continue his
life in gulags for 17 years, and then in exile. We should remember also the Blessed
Alexjei Zaryckji (1912–1963) of Ukrainian origins, who was deported to Karaganda
in Kazakhstan and died there as a martyr of the faith in 1963.
Former Yugoslavia too had its heroic symbol in Mons. Alojzije Stepinac (18981960), Archbishop of Zagreb, who was arrested on September 18, 1946. The real
reason behind his arrest was the Pastoral Letter which he promulgated on September
23, 1945, which revealed how 243 members of the clergy in his Dioceses had been
killed, a further 169 arrested and 89 disappeared. Following a trial, he was sentenced
to 16 years of forced labour, begun in the prison of Lepoglava and following that
under house arrest in his hometown of Krasic, where he was kept under close
surveillance by police until his death by poisoning, which took place in 1960. He was
declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
In 1948 in Hungary, the Communists launched against Cardinal Jozsef
Mindszenty (1892-1975) a defamatory campaign similar to that which had been
waged against Stepinac. Because of his heroic resistance, he was tortured for 40 days
in a row and forced to sign documents of which he did not know the contents. All
religious orders were declared outlawed in 1950, and around 10.000 members of the
clergy had to find other ways of living. Mons. Zoltan Meszlenyi (1892-1951),
auxiliary Bishop of Esztergom and successor to Cardinal Mindszenty, died in a
concentration camp in 1951 and was made Blessed in 2009 - thus becoming the first
Blessed martyr of the Hungarian Communist regime.
Two other important and famous names are those of Cardinal Stefan
Wyszynski (1907-1981), Archbishop of Warsaw and Primate of Poland and Cardinal
Josef Beran (1888-1969), Archbishop of Prague, in the Czech Republic.
When Cardinal Beran, Archbishop of Prague, died in 1969, Stephan Trochta
(1905-1974), secretly became his successor, but also died in 1974 following a brutal
interrogation. Together with him, we should mention also Blessed Vasil Hopko
(1904-1970) a Greek–Catholic, who was arrested and tortured; and also the
“underground” Bishop Jan Korec, who is now Cardinal, and was the inspiration
behind the Catholic resistance movement in the Slovak Republic. We all know about
the Polish resistance and its symbolic leader, Father Jared Populescko.
In Lithuania, the “Land of the Crosses”, since 1972 the clandestine publication
entitled “Chronicles of the Lithuanian Catholic Church” has revealed acts of violence
and abuse which were systematically perpetrated against Lithuanian citizens 14. Still in
14
See Cronaca della Chiesa cattolica in Lituania. La lotta dei Lituani per la propria identità di
the Eighties, Lithuanian priests were threatened, beaten and killed, like, for instance,
Father Bronius Laurinavicius (1913-1981) and Father Juozas Zdebskis (1929-1986).
In Albania, thousands of priests and Catholic laymen were killed by the
Communists led by Enver Hoxha, who had gone from the Soviet to the Chinese
approach in the Sixties. The elite of the Communist party in Albania was proud to say
that Albania was “The First Atheist State in the world”, as one can read in the 1976
Constitution. Among the resistants, we must remember Father Mikel Koliqui (19021997), who was made Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1994. He had been sentenced
to forced labour in 1945, on the accusation of listening to foreign radio broadcast.
In Bulgaria, the majority Greek Orthodox Church became in 1950 a public
body, at the service of the State. Father Eugenio Bossilkov (1900-1952), now
Blessed, was arrested, tortured, sentenced to death and thrown into a common grave
in 1952.
In Romania, Catholic churches, hospitals and schools were closed. Mons. Iuliu
Hossu (1885-1970), who was nominated Cardinal in pectore by Pope Paul VI,
refused to abjure his own faith and died in prison, just like the Servant of God Anton
Durcovici (1888-1951), Bishop of Iasi. Bishop Aron Marton (1896-1980) of Alba
Iulia and Father Alexandru Todea (1912-2002), who later became a Cardinal, also
spent their lives in prison or under house arrests. The processes of Beatification of
Mons. Vladimir Ghika (1873-1954), who died in a Communist prison following
tortures by the Securitate, and that of the Franciscan, Father Clemente Gatti (18801952), who also died following abuse and beatings received while in prison, are
currently under way. What happened in Romania was in fact worst than Auschwitz.
No lager nor gulag could compare to the prison of Pitesti, North of Bucharest,
between 1949 and 1952 15, which was a trylu horrific place where the torturer Eugen
Turcanu had invented the most gruesome torments in order to re–educate the
prisoners, both physically and mentally, also by forcing mutual torture among
political prisoners. Seminarists had, everyday, their head pushed into a bucket of
urine and faeces, while the prison guards performed a parody of the rite of Baptism:
furthermore, Turcanu obliged them to participate in Black Masses which he
organized, in particular during Holy Week and on Holy Friday16.
The shadow of Communist Imperialism, since the Thirties, spread into the
popolo, La Casa di Matriona, Milan 1976.
15
Virgil Ierunca, Pitesti laboratoire concentrationnaire, Editions Michelin, Paris 1996.
16
Robert Royal, I martiri del XX secolo, tr. it. Ancora, Milan 2002, p. 209.
world at large. How could we forget the Red Holocaust in Spain, where the number
of priests and clergy which became martyrs is as high as 6,832, among which 30
Bishops17? The majority of martyrs of the 20th Century who have become Blessed
today were killed in the first 6 months of the Spanish Civil War, between July 1936
and January 1937. Also in Italy, there was a kind of “Civil War” between 1943 and
1945, even continuing until 1948. We have now proof that 129 priests were killed by
Communist Italian partisans between September 8 1944 and April 18 1945 18, and
even until 1948. Among them were the Blessed Father Francesco Bonifacio (19121946), who was killed by Tito’s militia in 1946, and also a young seminarist, only 14
years old, Rolando Rivi (1931-1945), who is in the process of being declared
Blessed.
On January 18, 1952 Pope Pius XII in his Apostolic Letter entitled Copimus
imprimis did not hesitate to compare the situation of the Catholics and, as a matter of
fact, also of the entire population of Communist China, to that of the Christians
suffering persecutions in the Roman era.
Is Communism dead? The reports published by Aid to the Church in Need
clearly reveal that persecution is ongoing in different countries, from Cuba to North
Korea, apart from China of course, where the Laogai , inaugurated by Mao in 1950,
are still nowadays functioning for breaking down political opposition and for
providing the regime with an enormous labour force at no cost at all.
The impressive book “Mao, The Unknown Story” by John Halliday and Jung
Chang19, describes in detail the persecutions suffered by followers of any religion in
China. In 2000, Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei, Archbishop of Shanghai, died: he
had spent 30 years of his life in the camps, two under house arrest and thirteen in
exile. Together with him, we should also mention the Servant of God François-Xavier
Nguyen Van Thuan (1928-2002), Bishop of Saigon in Vietnam, who was held in
prison for thirteen years, from 1975 to 1988, and then became Cardinal in 2001.
We cannot forget, however, that alongside this kind of bloody persecution,
there is also a bloodless one, but not for this reason any less fierce, which relies on
mass media defamation and moral isolation. This is part of the cultural and
psychological war waged by Communism, which has found in Antonio Gramsci its
most influential advocate in the West.
17
Ibidem, p. 137.
18
Roberto Beretta, Storia dei preti uccisi dai partigiani, Piemme, Casale Monferrato 2005.
19
John Halliday e Jung Chang, Mao, the unknown story, Random House, London 2005.
Gramsci’s anti–Christian attitude is sophisticated, but, at the same time,
relentless. For him, the task of Communism is to bring to the people that utter
secularism, which the Age of Enlightenment had limited only to a certain restricted
elite. On the social level, such atheist secularism comes about by means of a practical
elimination of the idea itself of God, which is possible to achieve, in his own words,
only by a “ complete secularization of all life and all relations between people” 20 that is, a secularization of all social life and relations which will allow Communism
to eradicate the social roots themselves of religion. The “secular” State, differently
from other Atheist States in the past, does not, therefore, need to proclaim itself
explicitly Atheist, since God would be totally expelled from all social relations and
environments, and, therefore, even the need to mention Him in order to deny His
existence will disappear.
Christianity must be eradicated also from historical memory and public spaces,
in order to avoid the occurrence of any type of Christian self–awareness in society.
There is, therefore, a strict connection between the official request, which Italy
recently received, to remove the Crucifix from public places and the elimination of
all mention of Christianity and the Christian roots of Europe from the Preamble of the
Lisbon Treaty.
The new Europe, where there is no place for God nor Christianity, is the
realization of Gramsci’s plan for a total secularization of society. The ideological core
of Communism is dialectic materialism: the idea that in the world all is matter in
constant transformation, and dialectic is the law of perpetual transformation.
Communist regimes have now fallen, but Western relativism derives from those very
same principles of materialism and relativism, that is, is based on the denial of all
spiritual reality and every stable and permanent element in Man’s life and society.
We must, therefore, acknowledge that Fatima’s Prophecy, according to which
Russia would spread its mistaken beliefs into the world, has actually come true. The
decomposition of Communism has caused the decay of the West. It could not,
however, destroy Christianity: in it, and only in it, can Europe nowadays still find
reasons for life and hope.
20
Antonio Gramsci, op. cit., p. 1561.