A kádári egyházpolitika Biharban

Abstract

The supremacy of the church traditionally spread out to the whole life of people till the end of World War II. However, this was straight against the atheist views of the communist leadership that was gradually gaining power after 1945, so the churches like the ’Clerical Reaction’ became the number one ideological rivals and pursued by all means their fight off. The proceedings taking place in several arenas started off with the elimination of the economic power of the churches, the fighting off of their public and political acts and of their educational position. The complete bled out of the denominations continued with the formation of one priestpastor layer that was mostly loyal to and dependent on the realm, until the forceful turn to irreligiousness, which the original aim was, took place in the mid-70s. In the present study, we show the local manifestations of this event in Bihar, comparing them via several examples with country-wide events.