RPR vsRSR

[MMM]

That may be, but in the communist system, God was forbidden - and I still don't remember a similar case of repentance, by such facts as liberating thousands of surviving prisoners. I like more the explanation that it wasn't needed anymore to keep them in, as no other opposition movements existed.

This post has been edited by MMM on March 17, 2009 01:46 pm

[Radub]

Watch the documentary again. It describes (in quite some detail) how Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej repented and confessed to the Patriarch of the Romanian Church. It looks like his release of prisoners was an act of contrition after all.

God was not forbidden in communist Romania.
Members of the Communist Party could not attend church, but many chose not to join the Communist Party in order to keep their faith. During communist times, children were baptised, marriages were celebrated in church, funerals took place in consecrated grounds with priests in attendance and many people held private commemorative masses in their homes. Further proof that the church was not forbidden is the ongoing suspicion that the priests colluded with the Securitate and shared with the Securitate the private information given in confession. Surely, that would not be the case if those people had not gone to confession in the first place.

Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on March 17, 2009 07:27 pm

[MMM]

This is (in a twisted way) logical! In USSR it was much worse, but let's keep in mind that Justinian Marina (the Patriarch of that time) owed his ascension to Dej and there still are many suspicions about him and his behaviour and leadership of the Romanian Orthodox Church! And the documentary does NOT supply detailed information (as it would be against the beliefs of the Church) about the confession.