ABSTRACT
In Poland, the government has taken meaningful steps to improve the situation of the Catholic Church. In 1971 it returned land, churches, and property to the Church which had been in the Oder-Neisse regions. In Czechoslovakia restriction and intolerance characterize the position of the Catholic Church. Though repression has not been as bad as it was between 1948 and 1968, few of the improvements affecting the clergy made during the Dubcek regime have survived. The Communist Party leader said that he believed that this encounter "would lead to further efforts to stabilize Church-State relations." In Czechoslovakia restriction and intolerance characterize the position of the Catholic Church. In East Germany, the Church is suffering from growing secularization and official atheism, but enjoys relative freedom compared to the other East European Communist states except for Poland and Yugoslavia.
