Posted on 07/29/2019 6:49:21 PM PDT by marshmallow
A visit to Albania today reminds the traveler of the worst of modernity and the fall of man, but also inspires hope.
In 1945, when the communists seized power in Albania, the Church began to be persecuted with a ferocity not seen since the first centuries of Christianity. The despot Enver Hoxha declared Albania the world’s first atheist state in 1967. All religions were banned, churches and mosques were destroyed, and clergy, who had been ministering in appalling conditions, were rounded up and sent to camps. Hoxha had a particular hatred for the Catholic Church, which he viewed as a foreign influence and an alternative center of loyalty for the people. Consequently, the Church suffered the most severe strictures; any Catholic practice had to be conducted secretly. If discovered, Catholics faced imprisonment or death. The Catholic Cathedral in Shkodra, the center of Catholicism in Albania, was turned into a gymnasium, and other churches were bulldozed and eliminated.
China is often called the world’s first “total surveillance State,” but Albania was the prototype. Hoxha ordered thousands of concrete bunkers built all over the country in case of invasion. Paranoia was the leitmotif of the regime. The Sigurimi, the secret police, were experts at bugging homes—it is estimated that every third citizen in Albania during this time spent time in a labor camp or was interviewed by the secret police.
The words of Christ in the Gospel, warning that children would betray their parents, and parents their children, became a reality in these decades of intense persecution. If children saw any sign of religious activity or affiliation—a Bible, an icon—they would inform the authorities. The most barbaric and demonic tortures were devised: Priests were drowned in latrines, and a young religious novice, Maria Tucci, died after being tied in a sack with......
(Excerpt) Read more at firstthings.com ...
I taught English and the Bible in Albania in the late 1990’s. Family members and friends have done so ever since. Many memories. At one time we were allowed to have worship services in a government museum in downtown Tirane. (That was eventually changed.) A Communist Party group met right after us. One Sunday one of the Communists confronted a very young Albanian Christian and said, “I do not believe in the God.” (Albanians use the article “the” before God.) She simply smiled and said, “One day you will believe.”
According to 2011 census, 58.79% of Albania’s population adheres to Islam, making it the largest religion in the country.
After Hoxha’s regime fell, the figures were even higher: more than 70%. However, since religion had been absolutely outlawed for a long time, the people were religious by heritage, not by practice. They declared their religious preference according to what their grandparents were, not according to their own practice. Things are changing.
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Albania was known as the Columbia of Europe.
Also as the armpit of Europe.
He asked the bus driver to please slow down.
The bus driver asked the reporter "There is very little traffic on this road, what are you so worried about?"
The reporter shot back: Albania's OTHER bus.
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