Chasing wind: A Radiography of the Greek Catholic Underground in the last Decade of the Communist Regime

Abstract

The article discusses the various means of surveillance employed by the Romanian Secret Police against the religious underground during the final decades of the communist regime. It showcases an event that took the secret police by surprise: an appeal for prayer directed to the Greek Catholic underground asking for God’s help in legalizing the Church. Directed to the higher administration of the Communist Party, the president but also members of the Romanian diplomatic core the prayer threatened the regime with exposing the situation of the underground church unless their requests were met. For more than a decade the secret police engaged into an extensive surveillance operation expanding their network of informers to discover the initiator of the appeal.