Religion and the Law: Eastern and Central Europe [Volume: 7(1988), pp. 75-86]

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BOHDAN R. BOCIURKIW
All clergymen must be citizens of the given country and take an oath of
allegiance to the state.
The Bulgarian code makes the leadership of every denomination
"responsible to the state" and stipulates that the government may veto
any ecclesiastical appointment, while Romanian law requires the government's approval for all church appointments down to the diocesan or equivalent level.
The Hungarian decrees of 1957 and 1959 require preliminary approval
from the state for any "appointment, election, assignment, transfer and
dismissal" of the clergy down to the city parish level. Following the unofficial Soviet practice, the Czechoslovak 1949 laws provide for government
consent to every church appointment; the authorities may also demand
from the church the removal of any clergyman.
The Czechoslovak law also contains a crucial provision that "church
vacancies must be filled within thirty days." Failing this, the state may take
"such steps as are necessary to ensure the proper working of the parishes
and administrative offices or the training of the clergy."
A similar stipulation appears also in Hungarian law. In both countries,
these provisions have been invoked by the authorities to fill key church
positions (except for episcopal sees which could be filled only by agreement
with the Vatican) with regime supporters, including some unfrocked and
excommunicated leaders of the "progressive clergy" movements.
In Czechoslovakia, the Husak regime has been relying heavily on
this law since 1969 to purge the Catholic and Protestant churches of those
elements which have supported Dubcek's "liberation" program or have
sympathized with the dissidents. Large numbers of parishes and the majority
of episcopal sees have been vacated in the process.
The less severe Polish decree of 1956, "On the Organization and Filling
of Ecclesiastical Positions," empowers the government to veto candidates
for ecclesiastical positions, including those of parish priests. However, in
the case of church-state disagreement over appointments, the final decision
may be reached through negotiations between the episcopate and the government representatives.
The greatest contrast between the East European and the Soviet patterns
of church-state relations appears in their treatment of the state's material
support of religion. Clearly, the post-war Communist regimes considered
financial dependence of the churches on the state as one of the most effective instruments of governmental control over the ecclesiastical personnel.
Thus, Romanian and Czechoslovak legislation makes provision for
state salaries to be given to the "recognized" and "loyal" clergy according
to rank and "efficiency," as well as for subsidies to the churches for other
purposes. Czechoslovak law in fact speaks of the state financing of all
"ordinary material expenditure of the churches"; and Bulgarian law provides
for state subsidy to meet the annual "deficit" of the church.