The Devil's Confessors: Priests, Communists, Spies, and Informers

Abstract

The article charts the efforts of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the country's largest religious denomination, to block the public exposure of the names of priests and prelates who collaborated with the dreaded communist secret political police, the Securitate, by informing on other priests, disclosing information obtained from believers during confession or supporting communist antireligious policies. The article identifies four types of attitudes toward the Securitate of members of the Romanian Orthodox clergy, presents the arguments in favor of and against the public exposure of tainted priests, examines the recent revelations regarding the controversial past of Patriarch Teoctist, and investigates the Church's efforts to impose amendments to the Romanian transitional justice legislation that would exempt priests from being investigated by the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archive.