The establishment of the communist regime in Romania had direct consequences on the activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church. These were translated into well-structured strategies and measures that aimed, if not the definitive elimination of Orthodoxy, at least to reduce its influence and turn it into an instrument of enslavement for political interests. Patriarch Justinian Marina launches the idea of the autonomy of the church in relation to the state, developing his own conception of “compromise” with the regime – the social apostolate. The collaboration between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the communist authorities, the submission of the clergy to the laws of the country were necessary for the survival of the former in the political context of the epoch. The religious factor was a consistent reality in Romanian society, which is why a submissive church could be much more useful to the communist regime than one destroyed or liquidated in general. In turn, the institution of the church benefited from the maintenance of rights impossible in other communist states.