After Cold War, Cold Peace - the communist rule in eastern Europe did not eradicate the influence of the church, but polls indicate that more eastern Europeans are becoming disenchanted with the church

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 1, 1999 by John L. Jr. Allen

The curtain lifted, Catholics search for identity and purpose amid lingering questions about the past

Even a few hours in lands formerly encircled by the Iron Curtain are enough to convince a visitor of one truth: Anyone who believed religion could be eradicated here is seriously mistaken.

The profuse roadside sanctuaries, the grottoes, the household shrines, the soaring church spires all indicate that Christianity is as much a part of the place as its languages or its varied national histories. While the formal practice of the faith may have waned, there's a baseline of religiosity that just won't go away.

An anecdote makes the point.

In Trnava, the historic heart of Slovakian Catholicism, a road leading to the baroque Cathedral of St. John the Baptist passes one of those drab gray high-rises that were the high point of socialist architecture. On the side of the building is a Soviet-era mural, showing three workers in red above a banner reading "1948," the year Czechoslovakia officially entered the Soviet orbit. In the cathedral, on the other hand, atop the largest and most ornate altarpiece in Central Europe, is a banner featuring the year the altarpiece was installed: 1646.

Given that 302-year head start, it's hardly surprising the church won.

Actually, Christian roots here reach back much further than the 17th century, into the late Roman era -- making the Soviets merely the latest empire the church has outlived. Yet the church in Eastern Europe confronts numerous hurdles as it struggles back to health. A Catholic renaissance has not, so far, followed victory over the communists.

That hard truth will be much on the minds of the bishops who gather Oct. 1 in Rome for the second European Synod of the decade. The first synod took place in 1991, when newly emancipated Central and Eastern Europeans could still hear Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," -- a kind of theme of that liberating moment -- echoing in their ears. Many synod participants spoke confidently of a new springtime in the region.

In the years since, the church here has hit rough waters. Polls show its credibility dropping; many erstwhile allies now see it as greedy (for demanding the return of vast property holdings seized by the communists) and arrogant (for attempting to dictate social policy on issues such as abortion and divorce). Sociologist and novelist Fr. Andrew Greeley, who has studied survey results from Eastern and Central Europe, told NCR: "What the church there is doing is utterly opposed to what people need."

Observers such as Greeley note that under the communists, Catholicism was forced to develop flexible pastoral strategies -- most famously including the ordination of a small number of female deacons and priests in the Czech Republic. In the last decade, the hierarchy has focused on dismantling this grassroots apparatus or bringing it under tighter ecclesial control -- in the eyes of some, a case of fixing something that wasn't broken.

New revelations about priests and bishops who collaborated with communist regimes have also cut into popular support. Mass attendance is flat or declining, even as interest in spirituality is climbing. Decades of atheistic indoctrination have taken their toll. Nonbelievers are a majority in three countries -- the former East Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary -- and a significant minority in others.

To discuss these issues, NCR sat down in late September with two leading Catholic figures in post-communist Eastern Europe: Cardinal Laszlo Paskai of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, and Archbishop Jan Sokol of Bratislava-Trnava, Slovakia. Both men spoke through a translator.

Sokol said he regards Western reports of a decline in post-communist Catholicism as exaggerated. Many nations in the region are generating new priests above replacement levels (Slovakia has six times as many seminarians as Belgium, a country of comparable size). He also Pointed to the relative absence of internal dissent characteristic of Western Catholicism.

In fact, Sokol believes it's the church in the West that's in crisis, and it ought to listen to what Pius XII once called the "church of silence," the church in the East strengthened by its suffering.

"There's absolutely no question in my mind" that secularization has done more damage to the Western church than communism did in the East, he said Sept. 22. "We have avoided the hurricane that a mistaken implementation of Vatican II caused in America, for example," Sokol said, pointing to the shortage of religious vocations in America. "Priests there actually told sisters to get out of the cloister. It was a disaster."

Sokol spoke to NCR in his headquarters in Trnava, which was used as a military barracks under the communists.

Despite Sokol's pride in the resilience of the church here -- shared by John Paul, who has called on the West to receive "light from the East" -- few observers doubt that post-communist Catholicism faces several challenges:

* Accounting for the church's behavior under the communists, which was often principled but in some cases badly compromised;