Is Gorbachov religious enemy

EXPERTS disagree on the prospects for religion under Gorbachov. Although there has been a beneficial carryover from greater openness in society as a whole, a less restrictive religious policy has not been foreshadowed.
Although religious liberty is guaranteed, religion is confined to the sacristy with no possibility for the churches to have charitable institutions or schools while the state promotes antireligious propaganda. Pessimists recall that while Kruschev, like Gorbachov, was a new boon for soviet society, he was harsher on religion than Stalin (he reduced the number of churches from 22,000 to 12,000, now there are about 6500).
Prominent Catholics, ranging from Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila to the Brazilian Theologian of Liberation Leonardo Buff to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, have recently been invited to the USSR.
Almost half the USSR'S 285 million people are believers but there are only 18 million communist party members. It is not a brilliant result after 70 years of state-funded anti-religious propanganda. Over 50 million Soviet citizens are Moslems while upwards of 90 million are Christians or Jews. Estimates of the Orthodox range from 50 to 80 million while there are about 12 million Catholics with the largest groups in the Ukraine and Lithuania (2.6 millions).
Helene Carrere D'Encausse of the Paris Political Studies Institute has pointed out that currently religious faith is strong in the USSR where mixed with ethnic, cultural and national identity in the case of Jews, Moslems and Lithuanian and Ukrainian Catholics. But this amalgam also arouses anxiety in state that religion can be divisive. Religious groups which refuse registration with state authorities, such as the approximately 300,000 Baptists and the Hare Krishna sect, attract those prepared to ignore the state, which likewise disturbs authorities.
Sociological surveys by communists such as Igor Ilinsky as well as Soviet films and books reflect a disillusion with communism and a search for values by young people who sometimes turn to religion. "Teenagers are looking for a faith, not God" commented Ilinsky which suggests the Party could react strongly against religion if it felt it was competing successfully for the allegiance of Russian youth.
Mgr Ivan Dacko, Secretary to the Rome-Resident leader of Ukranian Catholics, Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, is optimistic about Gorbachov's effect on religion. "As Gorbachov is very pragmatic, he will seek a solution to the issues raised by strong but disconted religious groups. I think he will favour legalisation of the Byzantine-Rite Ukrainian Catholics which will ensure their full contribution to society".
However Fr Bernot Roth, a German Jesuit at the Pontifical Gregorian University's Marxist Studies Centre, is not so sanguine.
"Doubtless Gorbachov has more urgent problems than religion' and has not revealed his intentions in this sphere, it's said his mother is devout. I've no idea.
if this is true or, if so, whether it effects him. What is clear is that Gorbachov wants to give the Communist Party Greater Dynamism and enliven society. I imagine that any decisions about religion will be made respecting these criteria."
Fr Gino Piovesana, the Italian Rector of the Jesuit Oriental Institute in Rome, a study centre for the Eastern Churches, distinguishes between Gorbachov's "Glasnost", transparency in public affairs and "Perestroika" or restructuration of society.
"As far as religion goes" said Piovesana, "There's been some benefit from Glasnost but no peresttroika. The cultural climate has improved which enables Orthodox priests, for instance, to speak more freely and religious-philosophical books and articles to circulate without much fear of reprisals. There is more contact between isolated Christian communities in Siberia and elsewhere. But outside Moscow and Leningrad many communist thiefs have not been affected by the new spirit. Towards the end of 1986 Gorbachov warned party bosses in no uncertain terms that they should not baptise their children. That is his only religious statement. It is premature to hail a new religious policy under Gorbachov.
Desmond O'Grady