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.
[4] 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.
[3] 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.
[5] In 1948 the government abolished the Uniate Eastern Catholic churches (the second largest religious grouping in Romania, holding 1.5 million people in 1948[6]) 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.
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.
[4]The Ministry of Education ordered the removal of religious objects from schools (including many icons), and replaced them with pictures of communist leaders.
[4] 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'.
[4] 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.
[4] In reward for its complete submission, the Romanian Orthodox church gained many privileges (besides the aforementioned elimination of rival religious groupings in Romania).
Patriarch Justinian became a visible public figure, not in competition with but in submission to the system, and he served as a guest at state diplomatic receptions.
Its goal was to 'propagate among the labouring masses political and scientific knowledge to fight obscurantism, superstition, mysticism, and all other influences of bourgeois ideologies'.
The laity were subject to poor economic conditions and anti-religious persecution, while their hierarchy enjoyed very good relations with the state.
A waves of closures of monastic seminaries and monasteries took place between 1958-1964 (coinciding with Nikita Khrushchev's accelerated anti-religious campaign in the same period).
The church was used abroad to support Romania's image, while at the same time within the country the people would face continual atheistic propaganda.
[9] The Romanian Orthodox church in the United States split between those that continued to recognize the authority of the Holy Synod in Bucharest and those that didn't.
Vasile Lăzărescu [ro], Archbishop of Timișoara and Metropolitan of Banat, was found to be helping families of some imprisoned priests, and (following direction from the state) he was therefore accused by the church hierarchy of embezzlement and retired to a monastery in 1961.
In 1963, the Society for the Dissemination of Science and Culture (an organization meant to promote atheism) published brochures against religion: 'Adam and Eve our Ancestors?
Romania's leader, Gheorghiu-Dej, told the Austrian ambassador in 1964: …as long as the church has no political power and the state has full control of the education of the young I am not against religion.
The Archbishop of Canterbury also visited Romania in June 1965, and met with high-ranking members of the Communist government as well as the Patriarch (he was also given a special dinner by the Department of Religious Confessions).
Archbishop Ramsay, wishing to please the regime, praised the country's economic achievements; he also declined to criticize abuses of religious freedom or the atheist propaganda.
When Nicolae Ceaușescu (coming to power in 1965) gained increasing control, the only religious bodies that provided significant dissent to the regime were Evangelical Protestants, who formed only a small portion of the population.
It ceased to close monasteries, agreed to rehabilitate some formerly imprisoned clergy, and gave financial support for the restoration of some churches of historical importance.
[3] Abortion was outlawed in 1966 (on grounds of the need to achieve demographic targets) and remained so until the country's democratization following the fall of communism; this contrasted from other Communist states wherein abortion was legalized (even if economic logic pointed at a need for a larger workforce) and even used as an ideological weapon against churches.
This coincided with an earthquake that struck southern Romania as well as Bucharest in the same year, which then led to urban renewals projects that included the demolition of churches.
[3] Patriarch Justin Moisescu (Justinian's successor) allowed the Holy Synod to defrock Dumitreasa and other priests that the state arrested.
This toleration was accompanied by ruthless repression, with charismatic religious leaders subject to harassment, imprisonment and forced emigration (and also potentially killed).
Religious congregations that were becoming larger in this revival had great difficulties in trying to enlarge their facilities, and some attempted to do so without permission with the government responding by tearing down the new construction.
[11] In 1986, Metropolitan Antonie Plămădeală defended Ceaușescu's church demolition program as part of the need for urbanization and modernization in Romania.
Patriarch Teoctist of the Romanian Orthodox Church supported Ceaușescu up until the end of the regime, and even congratulated him after the state murdered one hundred demonstrators in Timișoara.