As an addition to our last-week material "Romania: Ghost Hunting or Hunting for Truth", here are three articles translated from the Romanian press. They reflect points of the debate that has being going on during the past year.

Cassocks Fall Off the Shoulder Straps

President Basescu announced yesterday the secret files of Church hierarchy and religious leaders would be made public.

Traian Basescu affirms that of those having files with the Securitate the majority were being followed, rather than collaborating with infamous internal security service of the communist state. Tackling the issue of clergy,the president expressed his hope that NCSSA (The National Council for Studying the Securitate Archives), when examining the priests' files, will take into account the fact that in communism "the church and all beliefs had to survive". "I'm not in the position to publicly instructing the NCSSA, but we all must bear in mind in the communist period, a period of atheism present in all the institutions of the Romanian state, the Churches, Orthodox or Catholic or others, had to survive". "But the decision to respect the 187 Law is correct and it helps us go all the way with deconspiring the Securitate"

Some of the files related to the church leaders or the religious responsibles were clasified on national security grounds by mixed comissions NCSSA and Romanian Secret Service. But what could be in such a file that would prejudice the national security? We've asked this question to Constantin Buchet, secretary of NCSSA and member in the old NCSSA. He attended many of the mixed commissions, together with former president of this institution, Gheorghe Onisoru. "Generally speaking, the files classified on national security grounds contained things related to espionage, counter-intelligence, sabotage, secesionism, irredentism or terrorism. During my time with NCSSA, I've never seen a priest's file classified on these grounds".

Ioan Robu (head of the Roman-Catholic Church): "I don't have anything against this."

His Eminence Ioan Robu, Roman-Catholic Archbishop of Bucharest, has nothing against publishing the files of priests and hierarchs. "If this was decided, then they should do this. I have nothing against this, because I have confidence in the intelligence of my people".

Regarding this issue, Teoctist, patriarch of the Orthodox Church, declared last week that "the position of the Holy Synod regarding the publication of the files of priests and hierarchs is known since 1997." In this sense, His Eminence Teoctist said that "The assessment of these deeds does not belong to the political realm, but to the ecclesial one," and forgiving sins is an action for the Church, the rest of "the penal aspects should be judged by the civil system".

Teoctist criticized heavily the declaration given last week by the Minister for Culture, Adrian Iorgulescu, who said some of the heads of Churches had written informative notes to Securitate on what people declared to them privately during confessions.

Dan Ciachir (Christian Orthodox editorialist): "This is a dirty action"

NCSSA decision to bring to light the files of priests is seen with diferent eyes by the analysts and commentators. Editorialist Dan Ciachir disapproves NCSSA's decision. "Going public with these files seems to me a way to camouflage the political world. It's a dirty trick. The Church is not a state institution, so it must be the last to be uncovered. We have a few bishops that already published their file, so I don't see the use of this action anymore". On the other side, Razvan Codrescu, a Christian publicist, thinks NCSSA's action as something natural. "It's normal to open all the files. What is more unpleasant is that we are given the impression there is a plan to discredit the institution of the Church"
Razvan Codrescu thinks that the impact of uncovering the files of priests and hierarchs will have two effects. "In the first case, the true faithful will not confound the hierarchs with the Church. In the second, those not attending the Church will dump the sins of the servants of the Church on the Church itself, which is wrong".

(published in "Cotidianul", written by George Lacatus August 29, 2006, translated by Lucian Dragos).

God's Sergeant

According to the Orthodox Christian creed, the faithful must serve the will of God. It seems that for over five decades, the Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC) was heavily tested. Did the Church manage to remain virtuous throughout? Did it serve the will of God? Or the will of the Securitate?
In the wake of the Law on the Religious Cults, passed by the communists in August 1948, ROC entered into the state's sphere of influence. The monastical centers were transformed into handicraft centers, with the priests being encouraged to learn civil crafts. All these measures dictated by the communist were accomplished with an unnatural fervourby the high-ranked clergy.

Throughout this long and dard period, a large number of priests and faithful were imprisoned or sent to working camps. Until 1963, 2.500 priests, monks and nouns had been arrested. Another 2.000 monks were forced to give up the monastical life and all the theological seminaries were closed. While some were suffering, others collaborated with Securitate. Estimating the dimension of collaborationism inside the Church is impossible even today. The Securitate archive is still brushed up by Romanian Security Service before it is sent to NCSSA and ROC not only does not want to see what dark ways had it walked during communism, but does all the efforts possible to hide the complicity of the hierarchy.

ROC tried to change the law

After the 197 law, regarding the access to one's own file, was voted in February 2001, ROC proposed some amendments. The amendment sent to senators requested the right to be informed about the collaboration of a priest or a bishop, a parish priest or a head of a religious community to be denied. Accepted by the Patriarch Teoctist, the amendment affirmed that the law "gives a hard blow to the sacramental and mystical character of priesthood, and to the faith of the Church and to the Church itself".

Teoctist, agent of Securitate

A document written in 1978 by a number of responsibles in Securitate ("Note of actions no. 00389830) stated: "The instruction with duties of influence of a large number of prestigious Romanian intellectuals who, during personal or business trips abroad, will provide to the Romanian communities a direct help in organizing symposiums, conferences, art exhibitions with a national-patriotic character, as well as publishing materials appreciative to our country, actions meant to neutralize and anihilate the propagandistic effects of external reactionary circles". Patriarch Iustin Moisescu, metropolitans Teoctist Arapasu and Nicolae Corneanu were to be trained for these tasks, as well as other informers.

"The external reactionary circles" were not foreign secret agencies, but dissident émigrés like Eugen Ionescu, Paul Goma, Monica Lovinescu, Virgil Ierunca or the employees of "Radio Free Europe". They were living in the free West and many of their activities were targeting the dictatorship in the country. To counter their influence, the plans of the Securitate were to train people that would inform about and thwart these activites by using the methods, means and logistic of Securitate.

(published in "Cotidianul", January 5, 2005, written by Stejarel Olaru, translated by Lucian Dragos)

Nicolae Corneanu is one of the few hierarchs that have admitted they were informers for Securitate and publicly apologized. According to his file, he was an informer since January 3 1950. This status helped him to climb to a higher position inside ROC. His file has 6 volumes, each of them consisting of 200/300 pages. He had three conspirative names and was loyal to Securitate.

Recuited at 27, he wrote his biography on the back of 8 pages torn off a Latin dictionary. As an informer, he felt the need for details, adding also some formulas like "the Soviet people warmed my heart and enlightened my conscience". We have selected a few of his informative notes from a pile of more hundreds in an attempt to show how introspective was the eye of "Popa", "Popescu" or "Munteanu", the conspirative names of Corneanu. He is speaking of the priests wanting to emigrate, of those already emigrated or about the priests with "an undefined attitude". In 1973, in an informative note about the funeral of a doctor's wife in Timisoara, the metropolitan of Banat manifests his disappointment with the preaching of the priests; the priest was afterwards fired from his office as a missionary. For all the work, Corneanu was payed between 400 and 4.000 lei (50-500 dollars at that time).
"I'm very sorry for the situation I was put in. I've only wanted to help the metropolitan see of that time, I didn't want to hurt anybody, but they were pushing me all the time, asking for information. It's my writing in there, but only those who did live these times knows how they pressed you to do what they wanted.".

The Archbishop of Constanta

Petrescu Macedon received the name of Teodosie when he became a monk, but he has another, given by the Securitate, a conspirative name: "Mache". In 1987 he wrote and signed the commitment by which he agreed to secretly collaborate with Securitate. Only two years before the Revolution, during this time he listened to the confessions of the "sinners". Assistent professor at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Bucharest, at the Department for Liturgical Studies, Petrescu Macedon carried on willingly the tasks brought on by his enrollment: to control students in order to know and avert dangerous situations for society. On the last page, "Mache" wrote with his own hand the commitment.

ROC denies

Fr. Stoica, pres officer for the Romanian Patriarchate, admits the document are contradictory. "These documents are fron the '50ies, meaning they are only lies. There is another document from 1953, signed by Draghici (former head of Securitate), in which he speaks about the enemies of the regime: patriarch Justinian and his two vicars, Antim and Teoctist". But the document present in this material is dated February 14, 1978.

(published in "Cotidianul", January 5, 2005, written by Miruna Olteanu, translated by Lucian Dragos)

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