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February 1972
The
PLAIN TRUTH
thelremlin
Archbishop Agostino Casaroli, Pope Paul's leading diplomatic trouble-shooter, signs the nuclear non–
proliferation treaty for the Vatican.
turned to the Church "both its voice
and its self-esteem."
The Russian "liberation" whicb
ended Dubcek's career did not seem
to dampen his renewal of religious
freedom. The Czech government ex–
pressed an interest in normalizing re–
lations with the Vatican in July
1970. In March 1971, the Vatican
dispatched a delegation to Prague for
a new round of talks to accomplish
this end.
.
Of course, the most astoundíog
news -
which commanded the
headlines last year - was the meet–
ing between Yugoslav President Tito
and the Pope. There are, of course,
ftdi dipiomatic relations
betwcen Yu–
goslavia and the Vatican.
The uoiqueness of Tito's govern–
ment among the Communist natioos
is a major contributing factor, no
doubt. But the renewed relations are
nonetheless quite significant, in light
of the slaughter of Orthodox Ser-
bians by the Catholic Ustachi govern–
mcnt in Croatia, during World War
II, and the fact that Catholics are a
religious minority.
Romanía and East Germany
In neither of these countrics are
Catholics in the majority. Reli–
giously, Romanía is dominated by
the Romanian Orthodox Church.
E¡\St Germany, also known as the
DDR (from thc German name
De11JJche Demokratische
Rep~tblik),
covers a traditionally Protestant area.
The Romanian Orthodox Church
has a militant anti-Roman history,
and considers itself a bulwark
against the Papacy. But there are in–
dications that this attitude is chang–
ing. Although the goverrunent has
suppressed the Catholic Church in
thc past, perhaps even more so than
othcr religions, it has made gestures
that in sorne ways have not been very
wcll received locally. However, the
Vatican itself has seemed willing to
overlook any reluctance oo the part
of the regional Catholic híerarchy,
thus showing its willingoess to
cooperatc with a nation's interna!
affairs.
The DDR government has been
relatively mild in its dealings with
the Roman Church in East Germany,
even though only a small mioority of
the people are Catholic. No
clergymen have been imprisoned.
On the whole, the bishops have
followed instructions from the West
German church. In fact, considering
the comparatively lenient attitude of
the government, the church hierarchy
in the DDR has been criticized for
not working more closely with the
secular authorities. But the Vatican
appears to be moving toward recogni–
tíon of East Germany. As has been
pointed out, it has already given
de
facto
recognition of the Oder-Neisse
line.
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