isloyal.

Because of the traditionally nationalistic character of the Albanian
Orthodox Church, the regime has attempted from the outset to use it as
an instrument for mobilizing the Orthodox population behind its
policies. Using the church for its own ends, the regime took steps to
purge all those elements within it that were considered unreliable.
Clergymen who did not yield to the demands of the regime were purged.

Among the purged Orthodox leaders was the primate of the church,
Archbishop Kristofor Kisi, who was deposed in the late 1940s and
subsequently died in jail. The regime replaced Kisi with Pashko Vodica,
a renegade priest who had joined the ranks of the partisan formations.
On assuming the office of primate, under the name of Archbishop Paisi,
he stated that it was the church's duty to be faithful to the People's
Republic of Albania and to the people's power and added: "Our Church
must be faithful to the camp of Peace, to the great anti-imperialist and
democratic camp, to the unique camp of socialism led brilliantly by the
glorious Soviet Union and the Great Stalin...."

Archbishop Paisi brought about close ties between the Albanian Orthodox
Church and the Moscow Patriarchate. These ties were further strengthened
after a delegation of Soviet religious leaders, headed by Bishop Nikon
of Odessa, visited Tirana in the spring of 1951. After the 1960-61
Moscow-Tirana break, however, these ties lapsed.

The Roman Catholic Church, chiefly because it maintained close relations
with the Vatican and was more organized than were the Muslim and Eastern
Orthodox faiths, became a principal target of persecution as soon as the
Communists assumed power. In May 1945 Monsignor Nigris, the apostolic
nuncio in Albania, was arrested on charges of fomenting anti-Communist
feelings and deported to Italy. In 1946 a number of Catholic clergymen
were arrested and tried on charges of distributing leaflets against the
regime; some were executed, others given long prison terms at hard
labor.

According to Vatican sources, from 1945 to 1953 the number of Catholic
churches and chapels in Albania was reduced from 253 to 100. Both
seminaries in the country were closed, and the number of monasteries
dropped from ten to two. All twenty convents were closed, as were
fifteen orphanages, sixteen church schools, and ten charitable
institutions. Both Catholic printing presses were confiscated, and the
publication of seven religious periodica