Abstract
One can observe that, among the different opponent actors who played a role in the opposition, the Catholic Church took a greater place in Eastern and Central Europe until the collapse of the communist regimes in the countries, by encouraging and aiding political opposition to authoritarian regimes. It provided an organizational and institutional framework which was independent of all-encompassing state control and supported the first grass-roots movements against the regimes, like Solidarity in Poland. When communist parties came to power, they did not hesitate to impose sharp restrictions on religious faith and practice in keeping with an ideological heritage that identified religion as an oppressive mechanism. Of course, as general rule, believers were guaranteed the right to believe and to worship, assured that religion is the "private affair" of the individual. The central hypothesis is that, despite the repressions and the clear deletion of religious beliefs, the Catholic Church has played a central role in the organization of the movements against the communist regimes in supporting regime breakdown and transition to democracy.
