The Devil's Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies, and Informers (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
My first book published in English, in 2020 at L'Harmattan Publishing House. It comprises 5 chapters: The story of a martyr: Archbishop Valeriu Traian Frentiu; Fr. Alexandru Ratiu – An American priest under the surveillance of the Securitate (1945-1948); Bishop under surveillance. Iuliu Hirtea in the record of the Securitate (1947-1979); Greek-Catholics under the Orthodox Church. The “unification” from 1948 in dr. Augustin Paul’s report from 1957; The library of the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Oradea (1948-1950). ISBN 978-2-343-19615-5
Romanian Orthodox Clergy and Communist Opposition? What the Keston Archive Reveals
This paper argues that although Orthodox clergy have customarily or summarily accused of collaboration with the secret police or at best mass passivity, the holdings of the Keston Archive reveal that dissenting voices from among the Orthodox clergy was increasing, but that institutional structures and swift Securitate action prevented their coalescence.
Politics and Religion in Communist Romania—Case Studies: André Scrima and Valeriu Anania
Religions
first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Politics and Religion in Communist Romania—Case Studies: André Scrima and Valeriu Anania by Iuliu-Marius Morariu Academy of Romanin Scientists, New York Branch, New York, NY 11377, USA Religions 2024, 15(11), 1367; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15111367 Submission received: 2 August 2024 / Revised: 3 November 2024 / Accepted: 7 November 2024 / Published: 11 November 2024 Downloadkeyboard_arrow_down Versions Notes Abstract (1) Background: The present research aims to emphasize the interest of the Securitate in theological matters with the help of information provided by the Romanian Securitate Archives. To this end, we will focus on two important personalities of the Romanian theological space, namely André Scrima (1925–2000), who left Romania in 1956 and refused to go back, and Valeriu Bartolomeu Anania, who was imprisoned for political reasons and later sent to the USA between 1966 and 1977. Both were writers and theological and cultural personalities (Scrima was well known internationally, while Anania had made a name for himself within the borders of the country). Therefore, the question this research will try to answer is the following: What was the interest of the Romanian Securitate in terms of religious aspects and particularly in the Orthodox Church? (2) Results: This analysis of the documents from the Romanian Securitate Archives proves that, although such an interest existed, it was rather superficial and was mostly related to the potential relations between politics and theology. (3) Methods: This analysis is qualitative and consists of a case study based on the interpretation of primary sources. (4) Conclusions: The conclusion of this research is that the Romanian Securitate was interested in the personalities and the work of André Scrima and Valeriu Bartolomeu Anania and their relationships with various people. However, the theological aspect was only of secondary interest to the Romanian Securitate.
Interstitio. East European Review of Historical and Cultural Anthropology, vol. IV, no. 1-2 (7-8), 2012
This article attempts to reconstruct the experience of Ştefan (István) Mezei (1916-1997), a Hungarian Protestant priest from a small Transylvanian village – Tărlungeni, located in today’s Braşov County – with the communist regime. The aspects presented in this paper are based on the analysis and interpretation of the documents contained by Ştefan Mezei’s Securitate file and his written memories, which offer us interesting information about his attitude towards and opinion about different aspects of the communist regime, his connections and correspondence with people from foreign countries, the network of the Securitate informers (mostly represented by the local elite - the doctor, the Orthodox priest, leading members of the local Lutheran Church, fellow priests, as well as ordinary villagers etc.) and its methods, mechanisms. Additional insights are offered by two of Ştefan Mezei’s daughters concerning their memories about the relation between their father and the authorities.
Fascists, Communists, Bishops, and Spies: Romanian Orthodox Churches during the Cold War
The Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of North America (created in 1929) had a fate similar to other diaspora Orthodox churches from countries where Communist regimes took over, such as those in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Albania; that is, it was split into two. The Communists in the home countries contributed to the division of the churches in the diaspora in an attempt to bring the diaspora communities under their control. The Romanian episcopate's first bishop, Policarp Morușcă (1935-1939), was prevented from returning to his post after a visit to Romania as WWII broke out, and even more so after Communism arrived in Romania with the Soviet tanks in 1944. His place was taken by Andrei Moldovan (1950-1963), when a group of priests who decided to remain faithful to the patriarchate in Bucharest designated him as their bishop and created a parallel structure that came to be eventually known as the Romanian Orthodos Metropolia of America (ROMA). In response to these developments, the initial episcopate (ROEA) congress decided to choose its own bishop in the person of the controversial Valerian Trifa (1950-1984), who was one of the leaders of the fascist Legionary Movement in interwar Romania, instigated the Legionary rebellion of January 1941, and profited from the Cold War to make his way to the United States as a refugee. Trifa was later succeeded by Nathaniel Popp (1984-present), and Moldovan by Victorin Ursache (1966-2001) and then by two bishops, Nicolae Condrea (2002-present) and Ioan Casian Tunaru (2017-present). At the height of the confrontation between the ROMA and the ROEA, the Communist authorities sent out controversial Archimandrite Valeriu Anania, a former Legionary Movement member who later became a Communist agent, to undermine Trifa. Trifa surrendered his American citizenship after Ceaușescu's Securitate got involved in the uncovering of Trifa's fascist past to the American authorities in the late 1970s. Post-Communist efforts at the reunification of the two dioceses have managed to reestablish sacramental communion but not reunification, with the ROMA remaining an autonomous diocese under the jurisdiction of the Romanian Orthodox Church, while the ROEA is part of the Orthodox Church in America. While the ROMA's Metropolitan Nicolae Condrea and Bishop Ioan Casian Tunaru are uncompromised, educated in the West, and willing to see some form of unity between the two Romanian dioceses, the ROEA's bishop Nathaniel bears with him the burden of the past and may not be too open to reconciliation. The split between the two ecclesiastical units is no longer justified, and hopefully the future will make it possible for them to be one.
The Romanian Orthodox Church Rewriting Its History
Churches, Memory and Justice in Post-Communism, 2021
This chapter deals with the Romanian Orthodox Church, the largest denomination in Romania currently claiming at the last census the allegiance of some 86% of the country's total population of 19 million (RNIS 2011). Given its historical importance, the church forged a special relationship with the communist regime, and then became a very powerful social and political actor after 1989, the year when communist regimes collapsed in Eastern Europe in a domino-like succession, beginning in Poland in June and ending in Romania in December. During the last three decades, the Romanian Orthodox Church has systematically tried to hide its collaboration with the communist authorities, instead presenting itself as a victim of the regime. This comes as no surprise, given that two of this church's post-communist patriarchs were both heavily involved in collaborating with the communist secret police, the Securitate.