How did totalitarian systems use anticlerical ideas against religious leaders?

Totalitarian systems have historically employed anticlericalism as a tool to consolidate absolute power, viewing religious leaders as rivals to the state’s authority and its official ideology. By framing the clergy as inherently opposed to the nation, the race, or the state’s goals, these regimes sought to dismantle traditional social ties and replace them with total allegiance to the government.12

Methods used to undermine religious leaders included:

• Institutional Subversion: Regimes often created state-controlled "puppet" religious organizations to replace independent institutions, such as the Soviet-backed "Living Church" or the Nazi-sponsored German Christian movement.34
• Fabricated Pretexts: Leaders, such as Vladimir Lenin, intentionally created crises—such as demanding church property during famines—to force religious leaders into a position of noncompliance, which was then used to justify arrests, public trials, and executions.4
• Public Discrediting: Totalitarian states utilized propaganda to ridicule religious practices, staging mock holidays or desecrating sacred objects to erode the moral authority of the clergy in the eyes of the public.4
• Direct Persecution: By nationalizing church property and prohibiting religious instruction, regimes left the clergy destitute and legally incapacitated, often resorting to imprisonment or violence against those who refused to submit to state control.34