Bucharest, Oct. 9, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Documents from Romania's former regime show that a prominent Orthodox prelate, Archbishop Pimen of Suceava and Radauti, was an informant for the Communist secret police.
The documents released from the Council for Study of the Securitate Archives show that Archbishop Pimen is one of several Orthodox bishops who were registered as secret-police informants. Orthodox Church leaders have urged the faithful to withhold judgment on the revelations, saying that the bishops did not harm anyone by providing information to the police.
The documents from government archives in Romania closely parallel the revelations that have shaken the Catholic hierarchy in Poland. In the case of Archbishop Pimen the charges of collaboration are particularly sensitive because the archbishop was an outspoken critic of the Communist regime and its failure to restore parish properties to church ownership.