dead the next morning. The police immediately took his body away and buried him at an unknown place.

According to an earlier report of an emigrant, 2 archbishops, 3 bishops, 1 abbot, 60 diocesian priests, 30 Franciscans, 15 Jesuits, and 10 seminarists and monks were either imprisoned or executed. In 1972, Father Stefan Curti was shot because he had dared to baptize a child in the prison camp. But the seed which the martyrs spread comes up. The Albanian press as well as functionaries admit that the "eradication of religion does not show desired results."

After Albania, Bulgaria was for a long time the country of the Communist bloc which let the least information leak out to the public. One thing it was known for was its unquestioning subjection to Moscow. It was the Bulgarian head of state and party leader Todor Shivkoff who once asked leader Brezhnev to accept his country as the 16th republic of the Soviet Union.

However, recent years indicate a very careful opening to the West. One of its main reasons were the preparations and celebrations of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state in 1981. The anniversary was largely made known abroad and signifies the attempt of the state to gain status in the world. It remains to be seen whether this new approach to history, which in Bulgaria is indissolubly connected with the Orthodox Church-will result in a loosening of the strict religious policy.

Six million of the nine million Bulgarians still belong to the Orthodox Church. They are ministered to by 1,500 to 2,000 priests. But one should not forget that the church is under the total control of the state, who even decides on who can become a priest. The committee for the Orthodox Church and Religious Denominations, assigned to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has the authority to dismiss any priest who does not seem to be acceptable to it, even against the will of the church.

The situation is even worse with regard to the Catholic Church. For her about 70,000 believers, she has not more than 60 priests, and according to some sources only 20, of whom not one is younger than 60 years. However, contacts established between the Bulgarian Government and the Vatican during the past years may be a sign of hope for a gradual improvement of the situation.

Although in terms of figures Protestantism is negligible in our country, as it represents a religion which in comparison with orthodoxy is much harder to overcome, according to a Bulgarian study on religious sociology. Approximately 20,000 Protestants are split up into Congregationalists, Methodists, Baptists, Adventists, and Pentecostalists. Beside there is the Armenian Church and a great number of Muslims.

All believers in Bulgaria suffer under stict legislation which tries to limit the exercise of one's faith to the performance of religious rites within the church walls.

As in other East European countries, Communists took drastic measures after their takeover in Czechoslovakia at the end of the forties in order to make the believers "free themselves of their own accord, voluntarily and due to their own convictions from the influence of religion." This "voluntary liberation" was considerably emphasized by the newly founded state church department, using var

ious kinds of repressions against the clergy, parents, and children. After believers of all denominations were deprived of almost all opportunities to confess their faith in public, only the "Prague spring" in 1968 revealed, partly, what the church had suffered during the previous 20 years.

Because of the short-lived thaw, little time was available to recover. Repressions against believers and churches began again with renewed vigor. They were especially caused by an opinion poll taken in the fall of 1972 which revealed that 72 percent of the population still believed in God. As a result, atheist education in schools intensified, teachers gave sworn allegiance to the MarxistLeninist ideology, and a confidential document said:

The antireligious campaign will be successful if the apostates are granted social, political and financial advantages which will have positive psychological effects.

Reactions of the churches were mixed. While the Protestant Church adjusted to the situation as far as possible, interpretating atheism as "radical humanism," a so-called "secret church" developed within the Catholic Church. Further, the import of religious literature is forbidden and, in addition, there is a wide network of informers who report anything that happens within the church.

This development, of course, is a thorn in the sides of the Czechoslovakian authorities. Since the end of the seventies they are intensifying their efforts to suppress any signs of spiritual life. House searches are the order of the day, as well as interrogations and increasing arrests. These measures are mainly directed against those clergy who engage in youth work or distribute Christian literature. Among the Communist countries of the Eastern bloc, Hungary today is considered to be one of the most tolerant with regard to religious freedom. Official statements often emphasize the fact that there exists a Catholic press, that anyone can buy a Bible and that the Bible is even integrated into the literature curriculum of certain colleges. But how do things work in practice?

Now, as before, the highest church body is the state's department for religious affairs, an authority directly responsible to the Government. It is a center of a whole network allowing the state to exercise its control down to the very local parishes. Numerous spies and informers penetrate into every sphere of church life.

This system also implies that higher positions within the church are filled with persons who are willing to compromise with the regime. Thus, even the primate of the Hungarian Catholic Church, Archbishop Laszlo Lekai, rarely misses an opportunity to underline that the church contributes to "the construction of the socialist state." However, in contrast, the Deputy Prime Minister Aczel has said that "A compromise between materialist Marxism and religion is not possible."

Under these conditions, it is very difficult for the church to remain true to its proper call. Religious education of the youth is especially affected, as in 1948 all denomination schools, more than 50 percent in the nation, were placed under government control. And the very next year, religious lessons in the state schools were abolished. However, in recent years, because the Catholic Church tried to reach a prearrangement, in 1976 religious lessons were permitted in church buildings under restrictive measures. Also, some

of the Catholic schools were returned to the church, as well as allowing Catholic and Protestant theological colleges to operate. But the state defines who may be admitted.

Then in 1978, further relaxation of previous religious bans provided for a theology correspondence course for laymen, Biblican lectures in secondary girls' schools, and the Reformed Church was also allowed to open a bookshop in Budapest in 1977.

Since 1977, a new wind has been blowing in Romania. The personality cult surrounding Ceausescu is accompanied by increasingly brutal methods of torture employed by the Securitate (the Rumanian secret service) against religious and political dissidents. There is proof that the victims are beaten on the head, neck, and abdomen with fists, rubber truncheons, wet sandbags, et cetera. Also, the forcible treatment in psychiatric clinics where several hundred dissidents are being held, is especially cruel. Various drugs induce anxiety, unconsciousness, apathy, insomnia, acute pain in the muscles or paralysis of the neck, eyes, and extremities. Often the result is serious damage to organs of the body and complete disequilibrium of the mind.

In order to defeat the growing religious movement, the Government has intensified its methods of repression and, as a result, very often believers are hit with exorbitant fines. Often the father of a family is dismissed from his job and given a fine at the same time. This results in great hardship to him and his dependents. Children who go to church are rarely admitted to higher education. Many are even beaten by their teacher.

One case in point that is still not solved involves Father Georghe Calciu, a Romanian Orthodox priest. In 1948 he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Following his release he studied philosophy and theology. He soon became popular as a priest and teacher at the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Bucharest. He protested courageously against the destruction of churches, evacuation of the monasteries, and discrimination against other Christian denominations. In August of 1977 Calciu was dismissed by the church. On March 10, 1979, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He is in poor health and still is being held under government supervision.

The question is, what can be done to help alleviate the continual suffering of Christians because of religious persecution, which is a violation of human rights?

One Biblical answer is found in the book of Hebrews 13:3, which says, "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body," which means we will show an identity with those who need our help. And this is done through strong world public opinion to bear against violations wherever they occur.

In closing, I would like to share a quote from Abraham Lincoln that he spoke on April 6, 1859:

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

Thank you very much.

Mr. BONKER. Thank you, Reverend Arnold, for that excellent statement. We have another meeting at 5:15 so we are running into

a time problem. If you could summarize your remarks and allow a little time for questions, we would appreciate it.

Mrs. Hruby, you may begin.

STATEMENTS OF REV. BLAHOSLAV HRUBY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EDITOR, RCDA, RELIGION IN COMMUNIST-DOMINATED AREAS; AND OLGA S. HRUBY, DEPUTY DIRECTOR

STATEMENT OF OLGA S. HRUBY

Mrs. HRUBY. We thank you for this opportunity. It is a very emotional occasion for me. Today is the 33d anniversary of my arrival in this country when I escaped political persecution in Czechoslovakia.

In our statement we attempted to outline the situation of churches and religion under individual Communist systems. There are glaring differences in the methods of political, i.e., Communist, control and infiltration of religious communities in each of the countries behind the Iron Curtain; however, their common denominator is the objective of total elimination of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and other religions and their replacement by Marxist idolatry.

Communism is a would-be substitution for religion. Communist celebrations have adopted a long time ago certain aspects of religious worship: dogma, chants, litanies, icons of the trinity-Marx, Engels, and Lenin-though for a while Engels had been replaced by Stalin-all follow the line of a pagan religion.

Churches are not only controlled by the state but also used as a means of control of the population. Clergymen, theology students, and teachers as well as laity are frequently invited to cooperate discreetly with the secret police and to report on the activities of church members. We are aware that agents of the secret police operating within the churches have acquired theological education and are quite conversant with religious issues.

There is testimony to support these allegations.

Churches may function in Communist countries with the consent of the state; in other words, they must apply for registration, which then dictates the conditions under which the congregation may operate. The state approves the clergymen and the church council, which is the ruling body in the congregation; the state may remove them from office without any explanation or recourse.

The state permits or denies the use of buildings for purposes of worship, the manufacture of religious artifacts, the publication of religious literature, the performance of religious rites outside the church, even the text of sermons. It controls religious rituals such as weddings or baptisms.

The state curtails or entirely prevents religious education of children and teenagers under 18 years of age. In the U.S.S.R. it forbids the families to give children religious upbringing under the penalty of deprivation of parental rights, which means that the state can take the children away from their family and place them in orphanages where parents and relatives cannot visit the children, as was the case of the Vashchenko daughters.

Under such circumstances many believers decided to join the underground, or Confessing Church in order to avoid constant intervention by state authorities in purely religious matters. The Confessing Church is not registered and thus not recognized by the state. It is growing rapidly, which makes the Communist leadership very apprehensive, and for very good reasons.

Under the Marxist monopoly, churches, registered and underground alike, represent the only alternative ideology to official communism which the system must tolerate, however grudgingly. They mean powerful competition because the believers love their God more than they fear their Communist government.

To suppress religion, the state maintains an extensive apparatus of agents and experts specializing in atheistic propaganda which closely cooperates with the police, frequently resorting to brutality, terror, harassment, intimidation and slander, old methods adapted from unsavory superstitions, and from the Nazi racist arsenal. For example, it resurrected the myth of ritual murder, once ascribed to the Jews, and adapted it to Evangelicals who are among the most Bible-abiding believers in the U.S.S.R.

A film and a publication entitled "In the World of Nightmares" issued in the 1960's presented Soviet Pentecostals as fanatics whose worship includes torture and ritual murder. This year, in 1982, the film which shows extremely gruesome scenes has been reintroduced on Soviet television and the publication used in atheistic exhibits and court trials of believers who have no chance of rebutting or challenging such unfounded, preposterous charges.

As a result of such allegations, local thugs in various communities were easily persuaded to "take the law into their own hands," and incited by the gore shown on the TV, they assaulted Pentecostal believers. Over the years, false charges against Evangelicals resulted in arson, murder, and other crimes.

I should like to underline the fact that according to various estimates, the number of religious believers in the U.S.S.R. ranges from 33 to 120 million, yet there are no practicing Christians, Jews, Moslems, or Buddhists represented in the government, party, public or professional associations, assemblies, trade unions, management, educational system, sciences, and culture. The Communist Party, far smaller in numbers, holds all the power.

The Soviet Government would have collapsed long ago, had it not been for the aid from the West, particularly from the United States, in the 1930's, during and after World War II, and to a great extent even now. This is the greatest tragedy of the dissidents in Communist countries that we, the people dedicated to democracy and freedom, are providing ways and means for repression of those who share our convictions.

The devices used to trap organizers of clandestine Bible printing shops in the U.S.S.R. and the manacles in which Vladimir Bukovsky, a brilliant dissident, was led out from the Gulag, were made in the United States.

It is our conviction supported by our friends and associates behind the Iron Curtain that the freedom of Soviet satellites depends on liberalization of the U.S.S.R., and that it in turn depends on the policy of the West, especially of the United States, and on