ABSTRACT
Until 1953, the AOCA enjoyed privileged financial treatment from the state. Because of the role played by the Orthodox Church in the communist regime's foreign policy, the regime provided the AOCA with higher subsidies than all other religious communities through 1953. However, financial assistance was limited to increases in salary. The state authorities did not allow the Orthodox Church to refit old temples or build new churches. Beginning in 1955 with the devaluation of the AOCA as an instrument of foreign policy, the regime significantly reduced subsidies. Furthermore, from the second half of the 1950s, the government exerted increasing financial pressure upon the Church. For example, as part of this policy (the main author of which was Enver Hoxha), the communist regime did not permit the ranks of the clergy to be replenished, going so far as to deny education to clergy members. The Albanian communist leader sought to reduce the ability of religious communities, including the AOCA, to play an active role in society and to become centres of social and cultural influence. State and party authorities intensified their arbitrary behaviours against the church—confiscating properties, closing churches, and preventing the clergy from conducting religious services.
