The devil's confessors: Priests, communists, spies, and informers

East European Politics and Societies

Volumn 19, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 655-685

  Stan, Lavinia ^a   Turcescu, Lucian ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Collaboration; Political police; Romanian Orthodox Church; Securitate; Transitional justice

Indexed keywords

EID: 27844498368     PISSN: 08883254     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0888325404272454     Document Type: Review

References (70)

1. See Lavinia Stan, "Access to Securitate Files: The Trials and Tribulations of a Romanian Law," East European Politics and Societies 16:1(2002): 55-90;
2. and Lavinia Stan, "Moral Cleansing Romanian Style," Problems of Post-Communism 49 (July/August 2002): 52-62.
3. The most important English-language study on the Romanian communist political police remains Dennis Deletant, Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989 (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1996).
4. See Kieran Williams and Dennis Deletant, Security Intelligence Services in New Democracies: The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania (London: Palgrave, 2001);
5. and Lavinia Stan, "Spies, Files and Lies: Explaining the Failure of Access to Securitate Files," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 37 (September 2004): 341-59.
6. See Stan, "Spies, Files and Lies";
7. Gabriel Andreescu, "Legea 187/1999 şi primul an de activitate a CNSAS," Drepturile Omului 20 (2001): 37-53;
8. and Mircea Stǎnescu, "Le Conseil National pour L'Etude des Archives de la Securitate et le Probleme de la Gestion de l'Heritage Communiste," Asymetria, 10 April 2002.
9. See Dan Ionescu, "Crisis in the Romanian Orthodox Church," Report on Eastern Europe, 9 March 1990, 48-51.
10. Romania Liberǎ, 31 December 1989.
11. In 1998, Corneanu said he insisted that Teoctist address the Romanians in the first hours of the December 1989 revolution, on grounds that "an era when people were alone ended, the Church which was supposed to bring people together failed to do so. Though we could come up with examples to demonstrate the positive role of the Church during communist times, at the time we failed to help the people." See 22, 3-9 March 1998; and Adevǎrul, 25 December 1989.
12. Radio România Actualitǎti, 4 January 1990.
13. Reported in Ionescu, "Crisis," 50.
14. Agerpress, 30 December 1989.
15. BBC Romanian Service, 15 February 2000.
16. Ziarul de Iaşi, 13 January 2001. The document incriminating Teoctist, dated 30 January 1950, was found in the SRI archive, fond D, file 909, page 510.
17. Evenimentul Zilei, 19 January 2001.
18. Evenimentul Zilei Ibid., 15 January 2001.
19. Evenimentul Zilei Ibid., 19 January 2001.
20. Ziarul de Iaşi, 23 March 2001.
21. Evenimentul Zilei, 24 March 2001.
22. Ziarul de Iaşi, 28 March 2001.
23. Dumitru Stǎniloae, Teologia dogmaticǎ ortodoxǎ, vol. 3 (Bucharest, Romania: Editura Institutului Biblic şi de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române, 1997).
24. Cotidianul, 11 July 2001.
25. Ioan N. Floca, Canoanele Bisericii Ortodoxe (Sihiu, Romania: Polsib. 1992), 458-59.
26. Monitorul, 29 July 1998.
27. Ziarul de Ias"t, 7 July 2001.
28. Andrei Andreicut, S-au risiprit fǎcǎtorii de basme. Amintiri care dor (Alba Iulia, Romania: Editura Reîmregirii, 2001).
29. Andreicuţ, S-au risipit fǎcǎtorii, 69.
30. The sermons were published in 1979 in Munich by Ion Dumitru Verlag.
31. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds.. Seven Ecumenical Councils (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1994), 599.
32. Andreicut, S-au risipit fǎcǎtorii, 66-67.
33. S-au Risipit Fǎcǎtorii Ibid., 67-68.
34. Monitorul, 29 July 1998.
35. 22, 3-9 March 1998.
36. Euenimentul Zilei, 24 and 26 March 2001.
37. Monitorul, 29 July 1998.
38. Evenimentul Zilei, 9 June 1999.
39. Evenimentul Zilei Ibid., 14 June 1999.
40. Evenimentul Zilei 1999 Ibid.
41. Among recent contributions, see Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu, "The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratization," Europe-Asia Studies 52 (December 2000): 1467-88;
42. and Olivier Gillet, Religion et nationalisme. L'Ideologie de l'Eglise Orthodoxe Roumaine sous le regime communiste (Bruxelles: Editions de l'Universite de Bruxelles, 1997).
43. Ionescu, "Crisis," 49.
44. Rompres, 12 January 1990.
45. Apparently, close to a hundred priests from the Alba Iulia diocese asked for Birdas's resignation, in response to his collaboration with local communist authorities. The Synod accepted the resignation at its 18 January 1990 extraordinary meeting but announced it to the press a week later. For more details on the removal, see Andreicut, S-au risipit fǎcǎtorii, especially last chapters.
46. Moisin quoted Bǎlan's statements from the multiauthored volume Biserica Românǎ Unitǎ (Madrid, Spain: n.p., 1952), 278-79.
47. Ioan Ploscaru, Lanturi şi teroare (Bucharest, Romania: Signata, 1993), 420-22.
48. Moisin quoted Radu Ciuceanu, Intrarea în tunel (Bucharest, Romania: Meridiane, 1991), 319;
49. and Sergiu Grossu, Calvarul României creştine (Deva, Romania: Convorbiri Literare, 1992), 262-63.
50. Nicolae Dura, "Pe când canonizarea clericilor ş mirenilor martirizaţi în temnţpele comuniste?" Dreptatea, 8-16 December 1993.
51. Nicolae Dura, "Invǎţǎmantul teologic universitar ortodox din România de astǎzi," Dreptatea, 15-22 December 1993.
52. Evenimentul Zilei, 2 July 2001.
53. 22, 9-15 December 1997.
54. Ziarul de Iaşt, 9 September 2000.
55. Ziarul de Iaşt Ibid., 8 March 2001.
56. Ziarul de Iaşt Ibid., 21 August 2001
57. Ziarul de Iaşt Ibid., 15 March 2001.
58. Ziarul de Iaşt Ibid., 28 March 2001.
59. Ziarul de Iaşt Ibid., 7 July 2001.
60. Cotidianul, 3 July 2001.
61. Ziarul de Iaşi, 10 July 2001.
62. Evenimentul Zilei, 10 July 2001.
63. Ziarul de Iaşi, 5 July 2001.
64. Evenimentul Zilei, 4 July 2001.
65. Cotidianul, 4 July 2001.
66. Ploieşteanu alleged that in 1997 was threatened with the file's public disclosure after criticizing then-Premier Victor Ciorbea. Following Ploieşteanu, the blackmailer suggested that the file would conveniently disappear from the archive if his attitude toward the government improved. Cotidianul, 9 and 11 July 2001.
67. Ziarul de Iaşi, 7 July 2001.
68. Cristian Galeriu, Sfera politicii 93-94 (2001): 36-40.
69. Cotidianul, 10 July 2001.
70. România Liberǎ, 2 April 2004.