Rev. 3-4-2024-7

ABSTRACT

AID RECEIVED FROM THE WEST BY CULTS IN THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ROMANIA IN THE 1970S AND 1980S

In the 1970s and 1980s, churches and charitable organizations in the West intensified their efforts to collect and send aid to ensure the survival of religious denominations in communist Romania.

In our paper we give a brief overview of the aid situation before 1970, analyse the impact of the floods in the spring of 1970 on the attitude of the communist state towards foreign aid, review the institutions and charitable organisations that sent aid between 1970-1989, explain how it reached the beneficiaries, provide information on the goods and amounts received by churches, priests and the faithful, examine the influence they had on churches and the faithful, and present the measures taken by communist institutions to limit their penetration into the country.

Keywords: charities, Church, foreign currency, political police, Romanian communism.

 

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