Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc
After the
Across
Treatment of Christians
Soviet Union
Very soon after the October Revolution, the campaign to end religion – and more specifically, Christianity, Judaism and Islam – began. In 1920, the White Sea camp was opened on the grounds of a once Russian Orthodox Monastery. At this camp, which took mainly Orthodox and Catholic priests, the prototype for other Soviet camps was revealed. The camp began to exterminate those who would not bend to state.[14]
Under the doctrine of
The state established atheism as the only scientific truth.
A few years later, in 1929, priests were not considered workers; thus, they were given higher taxes. Priests also could not serve in the military because they were ineligible. The priests, because of their ineligibility, were given non-service taxes, which was calculated to be more than 100% of their income. Priests also were ineligible to join collective farms. Because of this, they were given no health care, pensions, or social security. By 1939, only 500 out of 50,000 churches remained open.[31]
Christian churches, Jewish synagogues and Islamic mosques were forcibly "converted into museums of atheism". Historical essayist Andrei Brezianu expounds upon this situation, writing that scientific atheism was "aggressively applied to Moldova, immediately after the 1940 annexation, when churches were profaned, clergy assaulted, and signs and public symbols of religion were prohibited"; he provides an example of this phenomenon, further writing that "St. Theodora Church in downtown Chişinău was converted into the city's Museum of Scientific Atheism".[32] Marxist-Leninist regimes treated religious believers as subversives or abnormal, sometimes relegating them to psychiatric hospitals and reeducation.[33][34] Nevertheless, historian Emily Baran writes that "some accounts suggest the conversion to militant atheism did not always end individuals' existential questions".[35]
After the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church to raise morale for the war effort. Consequently, by 1957, there were almost 22,000 Orthodox churches in the USSR. However, in 1959, Nikita Khrushchev initiated a new anti-religious campaign, which led to the closure of almost 12,000 churches. By 1985, only 7,000 churches remained active.[36]
By the end of the Khrushchev era, 50,000 clergy were executed, and many of the church hierarchy were replaced by individuals who had connections with the KGB.[37] With the drafting of the new Constitution in 1977, however, "freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess or not to profess any religion, and to conduct religious worship or atheistic propaganda" was guaranteed.[38]
In 1995, the Russian state commissioner confirmed that 200,000 Russian Orthodox priests, monks, and nuns were killed. In 1997, the remains of a Catholic bishop and 30 priests were found at Sandormoch, 240 kilometres (150 mi) north of St. Petersburg. According to one estimate made in Russian schoolbooks in the 1990s, 20 million Soviet and East European citizens died in Communist labor camps, while 15 million more were killed in mass executions. This number included Christians, Jews, and various other denominations, as well as nonbelievers.[14]
People's Republic of Bulgaria
The Orthodox church received some favor against other religions in Bulgaria, in exchange for total submission to the state and a limitation of activities. Roman Catholics and Protestants were treated with constant harassment and had few legal rights.[39]
Czechoslovakia
The Communist government in Prague tried to destroy all organized religion in Czechoslovakia, especially the Roman and Greek churches. It emulated many practices of the anti-religious campaign in the Soviet Union, such as creating bodies to control religious activities and punishing priests who failed to comply with the many laws on religion; the punishments meted out for such violations were not as great as occurred in the USSR, however.[39]
The historical alliance between the Catholic Church and the Dual monarchy, as well as feudal rule, led to the state labeling the Catholic clergy as enemies of the people.[40]
Slovak emigres abroad contributed resources to the church under communist rule in Slovakia and smuggled religious literature into Slovakia through Poland. Pope Paul VI created an independent archbishop for Slovakia in 1977; however, the government blocked an appointment of a new archbishop until 1988.[41]
German Democratic Republic
This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. (November 2019) |
Religion became contested ground in the
The
The regime forced the churches in East Germany to break outside ties with the West.
The East German government had to take measures to avoid having their negative actions against the churches broadcast to Christians in West Germany, and the hard currency that West Germans gave to East German churches was seen by the government as something that should not be jeopardized because of its help to the economy.[44]
In 1969, under the pressure of the East German government, the regional Protestant churches in East Germany had to secede from the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), until then comprising regional Protestant churches in both Germanies. The regional Protestant churches in East Germany then formed a new organization called the Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR (Confederation of Protestant Churches in the GDR). The churches were called to be promoters of socialism; however, the churches themselves, while accepting this role, also considered themselves to be the determiners of what this meant (rather than the government), and they criticized the state when its policies were immoral, while they applauded the state when its policies were positive.[44] They provided such a strong force that the regime sometimes had to change its policies as a result of church pressure.
The government put significant pressure on the churches to submit to its authority, nonetheless. It did not, however, attempt to implement the same level of state control over churches as occurred in other Warsaw pact countries.[44] The regime had difficulties in attempting to control the Protestant churches in Germany as a result of their fragmented nature, even down to the local level and the regionalism present in Germany.[44]
Like in neighboring Poland, the churches in East Germany championed the mass political dissent against the regime in the 1980's. Most of the mass protests began with church prayer meetings that provided a focus for the opposition.[44] It fostered the youth counter culture and emphasized the church's positive role in society. The churches fostered discussion on issues such as rock music, sexuality, life in the third world, alcoholism, life in the GDR, and the militarization of society, etc.[44] This drew large crowds.
The churches promoted change in the GDR, not by overthrowing the authorities, but through peaceful change.
Polish People’s Republic
The
The experiences in World War II, wherein the large Jewish minority was annihilated by the Nazis and the large German minority was forcibly expelled from the country at the end of the war, as well as the loss of the eastern territories that were heavily populated by Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians, led to Poland becoming more homogeneously Catholic than it had been in previous times.[44]
After Soviet troops occupied Poland at the end of World War II, the Soviet government then enacted a gradual approach aimed at gaining control of the Catholic Church in Poland.[1] In 1950, the Polish government created the Bureau for Religious Affairs, which had jurisdiction over personnel decisions and organizational functions.[45]
The state tried to take control of the
Under the doctrine of
Persecutions of individuals for religion in the first few years were rare, because the state initially was concerned strictly with suppressing armed political resistance. From 1947 to 1953, the
Catholic publications continued to exist, although under pressure from the state. These publications included Tygodnik Warszawski (which was defiant to the regime and closed in 1949), Tygodnik Powszechny (whose editors resigned under pressure in 1953 but returned in 1956), and Dziś i Jutro(a publication that attempted to promote coexistence of Catholicism and Communism). This was a liberty that was not allowed to other places in the Soviet bloc (including the USSR most notably, which had banned church publications in 1929). The founders of Tygodnik Warszawski were incarcerated, of which Father Zygmunt Kaczynski and Antoni Antczak both died in prison. Cardinal Wyszynski attempted to intervene on behalf of Father Zygmunt.
Polish society was prepared for the post-World War II persecutions due to its long
Following with the forcible conversion of
A notable feature of the anti-religious campaign in Poland included "Patriot Priests" who opposed the church hierarchy and supported Communism. In return, they were rewarded and even sometimes allowed to travel to Rome. These priests could be blackmailed into cooperation. The core of their group was often formed by men who had experienced the camps and been tortured. The bishops often let them remain at their posts, although they were commonly ostracized by the laity.[1]
After the accession of
The security apparatus in Poland, as in other communist nations, recruited members of the clergy.
From the 1960s onward, Poland developed an increasingly vocal Catholic intelligentsia and an active movement of young Catholics.[1] The "Oasis" movement was created in the 1960s by Father Franciszek Blachniki, and it consisted of church activities including pilgrimages, retreats and various ecumenical endeavors. Intense efforts by the state to undermine it failed.
Beginning in the early 1970s, the church moved from a defensive stance to a more aggressive stance in speaking in defense of human rights.[48]
Cardinal Primate of Poland,
After Cardinal Wojtyla of Kraków became
We realized for the first time that 'we' were more numerous than 'them'[51]
Within a year, the independent trade union 'Solidarity' was formed, which was initially based on economic concerns, but it soon became deeply affiliated with the church. The Pope promoted Poland's cause as well as the cause of Christians behind the Iron Curtain on an international level, to the great discomfort of the communist governments in the Warsaw Pact.[44] The church in Poland played a key role in the revolution against the regime in the 1980s and provided symbols (the Black Madonna, the suffering Christ, etc.) that gave spiritual depth to the struggle against Communism.[44] It also provided spiritual and material comfort to striking workers, and acted as a mediator between the Solidarity movement and the government. It also held back the striking workers from excesses.[48]
In December 1981, martial law was imposed on Poland. This caused great trouble for the church, and many were rounded up by the military. Cardinal Glemp initially seemed to justify its imposition as a lesser evil, but many in the church defended the people who were arrested.[48]
The Polish Orthodox Church hierarchy, which had had their position in society strengthened since 1945, spoke out against the Solidarity movement.[45] They refused to send delegates to meetings about human rights issues. Some exceptions occurred, such as Fr Piotr Poplawski, an Orthodox priest openly sympathetic to Solidarity who "killed himself" in 1985; several doctors asked to confirm his suicide refused to certify this as the cause of death.[45] A Roman Catholic priest named Jerzy Popiełuszko had been murdered by the police the previous year, and the doctor who performed his autopsy was brought in and also confirmed that Fr Piotr had committed suicide.[45]
Communist authorities blamed nationalist Catholics for fanning strife between Catholic and Orthodox populations.[45]
In the
People's Republic of Romania and Socialist Republic of Romania
The Romanian Orthodox church had a long history of submitting to foreign rulers, and when the Communists took power after the Soviet army
After World War II, with Northern
The Communists chose who served in the church, who was admitted to
Once the Communists gained complete control of the church in Romania, they felt free to persecute its membership, which the hierarchy of the church turned a blind eye towards. When
Some religious revival occurred in Romania in the 1980s and engaged in more open religious practices, which the authorities tolerated. According to the
Widespread dissent from religious groups in Romania did not appear until revolution was sweeping across Eastern Europe in 1989. The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church supported Ceausescu up until the end of the regime, and even congratulated him after the state murdered one hundred demonstrators in Timișoara.[44] It was not until the day before Ceausescu's execution on December 24, 1989 that the Patriarch condemned him as "a new child-murdering Herod".[44]
In Romania, more than 5,000 Orthodox priests were imprisoned, and 400 priests from Romania's Eastern-rite were killed after their community was outlawed.[
People's Republic of Hungary
In Hungary, a 443-page collection, published by Gyula Havasy in 1990, reveals 10 church show trials and the detention of 2,800 monks and nuns.[14] Many thousands of Christians were imprisoned and many others were martyred. Perhaps the best known was bishop Vilmos Apor.[55]
People's Republic of Albania
As early as 1945 (when the Communists came to power in Albania), laws were set down that dispossessed religious institutions of their property.
At the close of the war, certain religious leaders were imprisoned or executed on grounds that they were spies, that they had worked for the Italians (
A drastic decline of religious clerics took place over the course of history from 1945 to 1992. The Roman Catholics had 10% of the clergy in 1992 as they did in 1945 and 0% of religious monastics. The
In 1947 the head of the Bektashis, Abas Himli Dede, was proposed a 'reform' to allow
Considerable anti religious propaganda was produced with such slogans as "Religion is not of the enlightened world", "Marxist-Leninism is the true science; as for religion, it is a fabrication that breaks the minds of men", "Religion is tied to outsiders", and "He who believes is ignorant.".[56] They attempted to lessen the power of important religious centers by moving the administrative authority of these centers to marginal centers with little historical or sacred association, and often in inconvenient locations. The remaining religious leaders who accepted this transfer were then relegated to what was essentially house arrest in these marginal centers.[56]
The culmination of the anti religious campaign occurred when Enver Hoxha declared the state atheist in 1967. He declared that
Albania is the world's first atheistic state, whose only religion is Albanianism.[56]
(Pashko Vasa, during the movement of Albanian independence had also stated that Albania's only religion is Albanianism, and Hoxha's statement referred to this)
The communist regime conducted a brutal and sustained campaign to suppress religion in Albania, and by 1967 2,167 religious buildings had been closed or converted to other uses.[57][58][56] The Roman Catholic cathedral in Shkodër became a sports arena and several Bektashi tekkes, including the headquarters in Tirana, became retirement homes. After the fall of Communism there were only three churches in Tirana; thirty of the most famous churches in the country survived by being marked for historical preservation.[57] The 18th century Edhem Bey Mosque in Tirana was also protected as a cultural monument, but only foreign diplomats were allowed to pray there. Of 1,050 mosques in Albania before 1967, 800 survived to the fall of Communism, but most were damaged and in states of disrepair. Of the 53 Bektashi tekkes, 6 survived.[citation needed]
Article 37 was added to the Albanian constitution in 1967, which read:
The state recognizes no religion and supports and carries out atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people[56]
Young people were encouraged to attack
Hoxha during this time spoke about the condition of women in Albania; he scapegoated religion for lowering the status of women and congratulated Communism for raising their status. When Hoxha died in 1985, the government did not change its policies immediately. In 1988 Albanian emigre religious leaders were allowed to visit Albania; in 1989 Mother Teresa (herself an ethnic Albanian born in the Ottoman Empire) came to visit Albania after being given permission (she was previously denied permission). In 1990 phrases like 'inshallah' were permitted to be said again. In November 1990, near the end of the regime, in the northern city of Shkodër a Catholic priest named father Simon Jubani was released from prison after 26 years, and he celebrated Mass in a cemetery for five thousand people; he was immediately arrested for worship in public, but when the building that he was being held in was surrounded by people, he was released again, and he performed another public Mass for 50,000 people. In December 1990, the law against public religious practice was rescinded; the regime was overthrown in the following months, and religious buildings re-opened.[56]
See also
- Religion in the Soviet Union
- Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII
- Soviet anti-religious legislation
- Persecution of Muslims in the former USSR
- Red Terror
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1921–1928)
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1928–1941)
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1958–1964)
- USSR anti-religious campaign (1970s–1990)
- Clerical collaboration with communist secret services
References
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- Lenin wrote to E. M. Skliansky, President of the Revolutionary War Soviet: "We are surrounded by the greens (we pack it to them), we will move only about 10–20 versty and we will choke by hand the bourgeoisie, the clergy and the landowners. There will be an award of 100,000 rubles for each one hanged." He was speaking about the future actions in the countries neighboring Russia.
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- ^ Peter Hebblethwaite; Paul VI, the First Modern Pope; Harper Collins Religious; 1993; p.211
- ^ Norman Davies; Rising '44: the Battle for Warsaw; Vikiing; 2003; p.566 & 568
- ^ Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p.494
- ^ Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p.508
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Churches, when not destroyed, might find themselves converted into museums of atheism.
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Churches, synagogues, mosques and monasteries were shut down in the immediate wake of the Revolution. Many were converted to secular uses or Museums of Atheism (antichurches), whitewashed and their fittings removed.
- ISBN 0387875727, p. 427
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- ^ "over 20 million were martyred in Soviet prison camps", Todd M. Johnson, "Christian Martyrdom: A global demographic assessment", p. 4
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- ^ a b c d January 23, 1999, issue of the London Tablet by Jonathen Luxmoore, Published by Chesterton Review Feb/May 1999
- ^ Religion and the State in Russia and China: Suppression, Survival, and Revival, by Christopher Marsh, page 47. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011.
- ^ Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History, by Dilip Hiro. Penguin, 2009.
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Forced Conversion under Atheistic Regimes: It might be added that the most modern example of forced "conversions" came not from any theocratic state, but from a professedly atheist government — that of the Soviet Union under the Communists.
- ^ Paul Froese. Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Mar., 2004), pp. 35–50
- ^ Haskins, Ekaterina V. "Russia's postcommunist past: the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the reimagining of national identity." History and Memory: Studies in Representation of the Past 21.1 (2009)
- ^ Geoffrey Blainey; A Short History of Christianity; Viking; 2011; p.494"
- ^
Peris, Daniel (1998). Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780801434853. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
Created in 1925, the League of the Militant Godless was the nominally independent organization established by the Communist Party to promote atheism.
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- ^ Antireligioznik (The Antireligious, 1926–41), Derevenskii Bezbozhnik (The Godless Peasant, 1928–1932), and Yunye Bezbozhniki (The Young Godless, 1931–1933).
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- ^ John Anderson, Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States, Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp 9
- ^ Dimitry V. Pospielovsky. A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer, vol 1: A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Anti-Religious Policies, St Martin's Press, New York (1987). pg 84.
- ^ Prot. Dimitri Konstantinov, Gonimaia Tserkov' (New York:Vseslavianskoe izdatel'stvo, 1967) pp 286–7, and (London:Macmillan, 1969) chs 4 and 5
- ^ Froese, Paul. "'I am an atheist and a Muslim': Islam, Communism, and ideological competition." Journal of Church and State 47.3 (2005)
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- ^ US Library of Congress. Revelations from the Russian Archives: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/anti.html
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Communist Atheism. Official doctrine of the Soviet regime, also called "scientific atheism." It was aggressively applied to Moldova, immediately after the 1940 annexation, when churches were profaned, clergy assaulted, and signs and public symbols of religion were prohibited, and it was applied again throughout the subsequent decades of the Soviet regime, after 1944. ... The St. Theodora Church in downtown Chişinău was converted into the city's Museum of Scientific Atheism,
- ^ McGrath (2006):46.
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Before 1937, the Soviet regime had closed thousands of churches and removed tens of thousands of religious leaders from positions of influence. By the midthirties, Soviet elites set out to conduct a mass liquidation of all religious organizations and leaders... officers in the League of Militant Atheists found themselves in a bind to explain the widespread persistence of religious belief in 1937.... The latest estimates indicate that thousands of individuals were executed for religious crimes and hundreds of thousands of religious believers were imprisoned in labor camps or psychiatric hospitals.
- ^ Baran, Emily (2011). Cahiers du Monde Russe. 52 (1): 192.
Atheist agitators hoped that such stories would help to convince believers and non-believers alike that the search for purpose in life could be solved with the discovery of atheism and communism. Yet some accounts suggest the conversion to militant atheism did not always end individuals' existential questions. To begin with, many former believers joined and left several religious organizations prior to renouncing faith altogether. Their life history could not be simply divided into two halves. One man recounted having joined the Baptists, Pentecostals, and the Seventh-Day Adventists before abandoning religion. Another man had been an Old Believer, Baptist, Pentecostal, and Witness. In other words, many believers had spent time as non-believers, but found life without religious faith somehow unsatisfying. As a result, some former believers admitted to having previously left religious organizations, only to return to them later. Many of them noted how after publicly denouncing Protestantism, they continued to receive visits from their former religious leaders asking them to reconsider. Indeed, atheist propaganda sometimes included complaints that once a believer had been convinced to leave his faith, atheist agitators lost interest in him, viewing the case as resolved.
{{cite journal}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help) - ^ "Anti-religious Campaigns". www.loc.gov. Archived from the original on 2004-07-27.
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- ^ Stolarik, M. Mark. "In step with the times: a Slovak perspective." Austrian History Yearbook 36 (2005)
- ^
de Silva, Brendan (2000). "The Protestant Church and the East German State: an organisational perspective". In Cooke, Paul; Grix, Jonathan (eds.). East Germany: Continuity and Change. German Monitor. Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V. pp. 104–105. ISBN 9789042005792. Retrieved 2015-09-21.
'The SED will refrain from talks with the churches, since it must be seen as an "atheistic party against the Church". Thus, negotiations must be led by the State, which is understood to be non-partisan, namely by the state Secretary for Church Affairs. But decisions on Church policies are to be made exclusively "in the party" [...].'
- ^ Mary Fulbrook, "The Limits Of Totalitarianism: God, State and Society in the GDR," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Jan 1957, Vol. 7 Issue 1, pp 25–52
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Ediger, Ruth M. "History of an institution as a factor for predicting church institutional behavior: The cases of the Catholic Church in Poland, the Orthodox Church in Romania, and the Protestant churches in East Germany." – East European Quarterly 39.3 (2005)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wynot, Edward, D., Jr. "Captive faith: the Polish Orthodox Church, 1945–1989." East European Quarterly 36.3 (2002)
- ^ Zdzislawa Walaszek. An Open Issue of Legitimacy: The State and the Church in Poland. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 483, Religion and the State: The Struggle for Legitimacy and Power (Jan., 1986), pp. 118–134
- ^ a b Mirek, Agata (2014). "Law as an Instrument of the Communist Authorities in the Fight against Orders in Poland". OL PAN. Teka Komisji Prawniczej: 64–72.
Planned atheisation afflicted all areas of activity of monastic communities [...] To victimise clergymen and consecrated people not only provisions of the criminal procedure were used, often violating not only the right for defence, but also basic human rights, allowing to use tortures in order to extort desired testimonies; also an entire system of legal norms, regulating the organisation and functioning of bodies of the judiciary, was used for victimising. Nuns also stood trials in communist courts, becoming victims of the fight of the atheist state against the Catholic Church. The majority of trials from the first decade of the Polish People's Republic in which nuns were in the dock had a political character. A mass propaganda campaign, saturated with hate, led in the press and on the radio, measured up against defendants, was their distinctive feature.
- ^ a b c d e Anderson, John B. "Catholicism and democratic consolidation in Spain and Poland." West European Politics 26.1 (2003)
- ^ Religion, Constitutional Courts, and Democracy in Former Communist Countries. James T. Richardson. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 603. Law, Society, and Democracy: Comparative Perspectives (Jan., 2006), pp. 129–138
- ^ a b Byrnes, Timothy A. "The Catholic Church and Poland's return to Europe." East European Quarterly 30.4 (1996)
- ^ Caryl, Christian. "The great backlash 1979: what do Ayatollah Khomeini, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and Deng Xiaoping all have in common?" Foreign Policy 173 (2009)
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was to transform Romania into a communist atheist society.
- ^ Ediger, Ruth M. "History of an institution as a factor for predicting church institutional behavior: the cases of the Catholic Church in Poland, the Orthodox Church in Romania, and the Protestant churches in East Germany." East European Quarterly 39.3 (2005)
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- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Trix, Frances. "The resurfacing of Islam in Albania." East European Quarterly 28.4 (1994)
- ^ a b Rugg, Dean S. "Communist legacies in the Albanian landscape." The Geographical Review 84.1 (1994)
- ^ Henry Kamm, "Albania's Clerics Lead a Rebirth," New York Times, 27 March 1992, p. A3.