Securitate involvement within Romanian Orthodox Church, newspaper

03.10.2007
Eurasian Secret Services Daily Review
AIA


Nicolae Corneanu, Metropolitan of Banat, has admitted that for 41 years he worked as a spy for the Romanian communist regime secret police organisation Securitate, daily Cotidianul reports.
The author of a commentary, Cristian Patrasconi, calls on the new patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel Ciobotea, to adopt a clear stance on the secret service past of church dignitaries. "He has a serious problem: on the one hand Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu
has expressed his regret, on the other hand high dignitaries who are likewise suspected of having worked for Securitate remain unaffected.

This is the most important challenge for Daniel since he took office. If we look to Poland - a country we envy for many reasons - we see what high dignitaries who played a similarly reprehensible role between traitor and servant of the church have done there: they have
resigned."

Only a few weeks ago a council studying Securitate archives said that Andrei Andreicut, bishop for Alba in northwest Romania, was recruited in the 1980s by Securitate and was an informant of the communist-era secret police. The Securitate particularly wanted him to spy on members of the banned Eastern Rite Catholic Church, news agency Associated Press reported. Faced with the council's announcement, he denied having been a real informant, saying he had been forced into agreeing to spy in 1983, or be sent to prison for allegedly trying to bribe an official, something he denied doing.

During communism, thousands of priests were imprisoned or sent to labor camps, alongside tens of thousands of other political prisoners. Many signed written pledges promising to be Securitate informants when they were released.

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