Romania to verify Orthodox clerics' secret police files before election of patriarch

BUCHAREST, Romania:

Officials said Tuesday they will publish the names of top Orthodox clerics who collaborated with Romania's former secret police, the Securitate, before the election of a new patriarch.

"One of them will be the patriarch of the Orthodox Church and it would be a shame to discover later that he's a Securitate general," said Mircea Dinescu, a board member of the Council for Studying the Securitate Archies.

Patriarch Teoctist, who died on July 30 at the age of 92, will be replaced in the autumn after a 40-day mourning period.

The state council will review the files and publish the names of any clerics who collaborated, said Dinescu, a former anti-communist dissident.

The church, which has resisted efforts in the past for the council to publish files regarding the priests, said it welcomed the review of clerics' files.

The election of the new patriarch in September is expected to be a choice between a conservative and a more reformist candidate. The Holy Synod chooses the candidates, who are then voted for by a church assembly that include Orthodox clerics, lay people and a few politicians.

Teoctist and his predecessor, Justinian Marina, have been criticized for failing to condemn the crimes committed by the communist regime and instead choosing to collaborate with the government.


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