Clerical collaboration with communist secret services

Last updated

Clerical collaboration with communist secret services occurred in some Eastern European countries during the Cold War. There were multiple reasons why certain clergy members chose to take this course of action. Some hoped to provide services to the government in exchange for a reversal of policies persecuting Christians. Others wished to buy favors from the authorities in order to advance their own careers, since the authorities could influence promotions within the Church hierarchies. Finally, there are claims that some clergy members were secret service agents from the beginning, working undercover.

Contents

Czechoslovakia

The association of Catholic Clergy Pacem in Terris was a regime-sponsored organisation of Catholic clergy in the communist Czechoslovakia between 1971 and 1989. Its name was taken from the well-known encyclical Pacem in terris of Pope John XXIII. SKD PiT was registered on August 1, 1971 and its stated purposes were 'peace in the world' and 'friendship between nations'. But in fact its raison d'être was rather to control and spy the clergy and influence the life of the whole church. Its founding assembly was held in Prague on August 31, 1971.

Poland

On 20 December 2006, journalists found documents from the communist archives according to which Archbishop Wielgus collaborated—or at least conversed—with the communist Secret Police during communist rule in Poland. This development was considered to be particularly significant in the context of post-communist Polish politics because public figures, particularly politicians, can be officially censured and barred from holding public office if found to have collaborated with the Security Services (Polish: Służba Bezpieczeństwa) of the People's Republic of Poland (Polish: PRL, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa). [1] The process of review of the Security Service's files, known in Poland as Lustration (Pol: Lustracja) has been the source of many political scandals in recent years. The Polish human rights ombudsman, Janusz Kochanowski, said on January 4, 2007, that there was evidence in the secret police archives that Archbishop Wielgus knowingly cooperated with the authorities of the Communist era.

Archbishop Wielgus acknowledged that he signed a cooperation statement in 1978, but insisted that he did so only under coercion and disputed the length and characterization of his contact as described in the published reports. [2] He made a public statement on January 4, 2007 indicating that he only provided information concerning his own academic work, and that the reports seriously distorted the truth. [2] However, according to the Polish national newspaper, Rzeczpospolita Wielgus had a more extensive role than he admitted, and alleged that he provided information about student activities as far back as 1967, when he was a philosophy student at the Catholic University of Lublin. Archbishop Wielgus only acknowledged a relationship beginning in 1978. Wielgus asked the Polish Bishops' Conference to examine the files pertaining to him.

The day after the discovery of the incriminating documents on 20 December 2006, the Catholic News Service announced that the Vatican Press Office had issued a statement of support regarding Wielgus: "The Holy See, in deciding the nomination of the new archbishop of Warsaw, took into consideration all the circumstances of his life, including those regarding his past .... (Pope Benedict XVI) has every confidence in Monsignor Stanisław Wielgus and in full conscience entrusted him the mission of pastor of the Archdiocese of Warsaw." [3]

Romania

After the Romanian Revolution, the Romanian Orthodox Church never admitted to willingly collaborating with the régime, but several Romanian Orthodox priests have admitted publicly after 1989 that they have collaborated with and/or were informers for the Securitate, the Romanian Communist secret police. A prime example was Bishop Nicolae Corneanu, the Metropolitan of Banat, who admitted his efforts on the behalf of the Communist Party, and denounced clergy activity with the Communists, including his own, as "the Church's prostitution with the Communist régime".

Before July 2006, when the matter made headlines again, Consiliul Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității  [ ro ] (The National Council for the Study of the Archives of the Securitate; CNSAS) has not made public any of the files of priests that collaborated with the Communist secret police, and has not responded to any requests by the civil society to reveal the truth in this matter. Historian Stejărel Olaru claimed in a TV interview in July 2006 that he has uncovered some documents that imply that the (now late) Patriarch of Romania Teoctist was an agent of the Securitate.

Right away, Constantin Stoica, the spokesperson of the Romanian Patriarchy denied that Teoctist has had any doings with Securitate, and said that the Patriarchy would not ask CNSAS to verify informations regarding the alleged connections between the high-ranking people in the Church and the former secret police, because "it would mean to give too much importance to this information". [4]

In November 2006, however, Stoica has announced that the Sinod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has decided to form a commission, whose members would be young historians and not clergy, which would work in parallel with CNSAS, so that "once CNSAS identifies cases of representatives of the Church that have collaborated with the Securitate, [the Sinod] would take measures in full awareness of the facts. Every particular case would be subject to a court of the Church, in respect with the Canons of the Church." [5]

Leonida Pop, who was stripped of his priesthood in the 1970s under Securitate's pressure due to his views considered reactionary by the Communists, and who subsequently fled to West Germany where he worked for a while for Radio Free Europe, told BBC that many of the leaders of the Church in 2006 would not be strangers to collaboration with the Securitate. He said that during the Communist regime it was not possible to advance in the Church hierarchy without the consent of and collaboration with the Securitate. "I know a few Bishops, both former and present, which were devoted servants of the Securitate", Pop said. [4]

In August 2008, CNSAS has announced that it had verified 260 representatives of religious organisations, including 89 clergy of the Romanian Orthodox Church, for possible collaboration with the Securitate, and has found that 6 priests indeed have worked for the Communist secret police. CNSAS warned that "the number of priests that have collaborated with the Securitate is considerable, given the fact that verification in some cases is still under way". Among the confirmed cases of Securitate collaborators were five high prelates of the Romanian Orthodox Church: Nicolae Corneanu, Archbishop of Timișoara and Metropolitan of Banat, Pimen Zainea, Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuţi, Andrei Andreicuț, Archbishop of Alba Iulia, Casian Crăciun, Bishop of Lower Danube, and Calinic Argatu, Bishop of Argeș. The sixth person was Sandi Mehedințu, parochial priest at Colțea Church in Bucharest. [6]

Russia

According to Mitrokhin Archive and other sources, the Moscow Patriarchate has been established on the order from Joseph Stalin in 1943 as a front organization of NKVD and later the KGB. [7] All key positions in the Church including bishops have been approved by the Ideological Department of Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and by the KGB. The priests were used as agents of influence in the World Council of Churches and front organizations, such as World Peace Council, Christian Peace Conference, and the Rodina ("Motherland") Society founded by the KGB in 1975.

The future Russian Patriarch Alexius II said that Rodina has been created to "maintain spiritual ties with our compatriots" as one of its leading organizers. According to the archive and other sources, Alexius has been working for the KGB as agent DROZDOV and received an honorary citation from the agency for a variety of services. [8] Priests have also recruited intelligence agents abroad and spied on Russian emigrant communities. This information by Mitrokhin has been corroborated by other sources. [9] [10]

In the early 1990s and later on, Kirill was accused of having links to the KGB during much of the Soviet period, as were many members of the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy, and of pursuing the state's interests before those of the Church. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] His alleged KGB agent's codename was "Mikhailov". [17]

Ukraine

These dissident ex-UGCC clergy called a (Soviet-supervised) "synod" (Lviv Sobor of 1946) in Lviv and at this synod purported to annul the Union of Brest of 1596 and all of its statutes. Ex-UGCC priest Havryil Kostelnyk (who later died under dubious circumstances) was forced or convinced to preside over this Lviv Sobor of 1946, probably due to blackmailing by the Soviet NKVD and other secret services. Ironically, as all the bishops of the UGCC were at this point either in prison or exile, no bishops of the UGCC were involved, making the supposed synod or sobor canonically illegitimate by the official canons of both Orthodox and Catholic Churches alike. While officially all of the church property was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, some Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergy went underground. This catacomb church was strongly supported by the diaspora created by the mass emigration to the Western hemisphere, which had begun already in the 1870s and increased at the end of World War II.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Orthodox Church</span> Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church

The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Christianity in Ukraine</span> Aspect of history

The history of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the history of Christianity, to the Apostolic Age, with mission trips along the Black Sea and a legend of Saint Andrew even ascending the hills of Kyiv. The first Christian community on territory of modern Ukraine is documented as early as the 9th century with the establishment of the Metropolitanate of Gothia, which was centered in Crimean peninsula. However, on territory of the Old Rus in Kyiv, Christianity became the dominant religion since its official acceptance in 989 by Vladimir the Great, who brought it from Byzantine Crimea and installed it as the state religion of medieval Kyivan Rus (Ruthenia), with the metropolitan see in Kyiv.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanian Orthodox Church</span> Eastern Orthodox Church in Romania

The Romanian Orthodox Church, or Patriarchate of Romania, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Since 1925, the church's Primate bears the title of Patriarch. Its jurisdiction covers the territories of Romania and Moldova, with additional dioceses for Romanians living in nearby Serbia and Hungary, as well as for diaspora communities in Central and Western Europe, North America and Oceania. It is the only autocephalous church within Eastern Orthodoxy to have a Romance language for liturgical use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church</span> Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a major archiepiscopal sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It is the second-largest particular church in the Catholic Church after the Latin Church. The major archbishop presides over the entire Church but is not distinguished with the patriarchal title. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriarch Justinian of Romania</span> Patriarch of Romania from 1948 to 1977

Justinian Marina was a Romanian Orthodox prelate. He was the third patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, serving between 1948 and 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow</span> 13th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus

Patriarch Alexy I was the 13th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) between 1945 and 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teoctist Arăpașu</span> Patriarch of Romania from 1986 to 2007

Teoctist was the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1986 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat</span> Ukrainian Traditionalist Catholic society

The Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych (SSJK) is a society of traditionalist priests and seminarians originating from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which is led by the excommunicated priest Basil Kovpak. It is based in Riasne, Lviv, Western Ukraine. In Lviv, the society maintains a seminary, at which currently thirty students reside, and takes care of a small convent of Basilian sisters. The SSJK is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X and Holy Orders are conferred by the latter society's bishops in the Roman Rite. The SSJK clergymen, however, exclusively follow a version of Slavonic Byzantine Rite in the Ruthenian recension.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanisław Wielgus</span> Polish prelate of the Catholic Church (born 1939)

Stanisław Wojciech Wielgus is a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church, who resigned his position as Archbishop of Warsaw on 6 January 2007, just one day after being installed in that post in a private ceremony, just before the start of his public installation, because of revelations that he cooperated with the Polish communist secret police decades earlier. He was Bishop of Płock from 1999 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazimierz Nycz</span>

Kazimierz Nycz is a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church who has been the Archbishop of Warsaw since 2007. He was Bishop of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg from 2004 to 2007, after serving more than fifteen years as auxiliary bishop of Kraków. Pope Benedict XVI elevated him to the rank of cardinal in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriarch Daniel of Romania</span> Patriarch of Romania since 2007

Daniel is the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The elections took place on 12 September 2007. Daniel won with a majority of 95 votes out of 161 against Bartolomeu Anania. He was officially enthroned on 30 September 2007 in the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest. As such, his official title is "Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrogea, Locum tenens of the throne of Caesarea of Cappadocia, Patriarch of All Romania".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartolomeu Anania</span>

Bartolomeu Anania was a Romanian Orthodox bishop, translator, writer, and poet. He was the Metropolitan of Cluj, Alba, Crișana and Maramureș.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church</span> Independent sect of Eastern Catholicism founded in 2019

The Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church (UOGCC) is an unregistered Eastern Independent Catholic religious movement that was established by Basilian priests, predominantly from Slovakia, who schismated from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and declared the creation of the new church in 2009 based in Pidhirtsi, Ukraine.

The anti-religious campaign of Communist Romania was initiated by the People's Republic of Romania and continued by the Socialist Republic of Romania, which under the doctrine of Marxist–Leninist atheism took a hostile stance against religion and set its sights on the ultimate goal of an atheistic society, wherein religion would be recognized as the ideology of the bourgeoisie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sviatoslav Shevchuk</span> Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Sviatoslav Shevchuk has been the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) since 25 March 2011, serving as the Eastern Catholic church's leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanian Orthodox Church in Communist Romania</span> Church organization existed from 1947 - 1989

The Romanian Orthodox Church operated within Communist Romania between 1947 and 1989, the era during which Romania was a socialist state. The regime's relationship with the Orthodox Church was ambiguous during this period: while the government declared itself "atheist", it actively collaborated with the Church, and, during the Nicolae Ceaușescu era, the government used the Orthodox Church as part of his promotion of national identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the Soviet Union</span>

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the USSR refers to the period in its history between 1939 and 1991, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teofil Herineanu</span>

Teofil Herineanu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian cleric.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synod of Polotsk</span>

The Synod of Polotsk was a local synod held on February 12, 1839 by the clergy of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church in the city of Polotsk for reunification with the Russian Orthodox Church. Polotsk was the center of the Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Polotsk-Vitebsk, the metropolitan seat of all Greek Catholics after the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Semashko</span> Uniate bishop and Orthodox Metropolitan

Joseph Semashko was an Eastern Catholic priest and bishop who played a central role in the highly controversial conversion of the Ruthenian Uniate Church of the western provinces of the Russian Empire to Russian Orthodoxy in 1837–1839. Subsequently, he became an archbishop in the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, elevated to the Metropolitan bishop of Vilnius and Lithuania in 1852.

References

  1. ↑ Najfeld, Joanna (2006-12-20). "Gazeta Polska: Archbishop Wielgus a former communist spy". Polish Radio . Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  2. 1 2 Archbishop admits meeting with secret police, says ‘I never inflicted any harm.’ Archived June 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Catholic News Service, 2007-01-06
  3. ↑ New Catholic prelate wasn't a spy, Vatican and Polish bishops say Archived June 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Catholic News Service, 2006-12-21
  4. 1 2 Preoți colaboratori ai fostei securități, BBC Romanian, July 28, 2006
  5. ↑ "Masuri canonice" pentru preotii colaboratori ai Securității Archived 2012-07-14 at archive.today , Kappa.ro, November 16, 2006
  6. ↑ CNSAS a dat verdict de colaborare pentru 6 din cei 260 de preoți verificați, Ziare.com, August 24, 2008
  7. ↑ Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin (1999) The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. Allen Lane. ISBN   0-7139-9358-8., pages 634-661
  8. ↑ The vice-president of Rodina was P.I. Vasilyev, a senior officer of First Chief Directorate of the KGB. (KGB in Europe, page 650.)
  9. ↑ According to Konstanin Kharchev, former chairman of Soviet Council on Religious Affairs, "Not a single candidate for the office of bishop or any other high-ranking office, much less a member of Holy Synod, went through without confirmation by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the KGB". Cited from Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia - Past, Present, and Future. 1994. ISBN   0-374-52738-5, page 46.
  10. ↑ Putin's Espionage Church Archived December 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine , an excerpt from forthcoming book, "Russian Americans: A New KGB Asset" by Konstantin Preobrazhensky
  11. ↑ Tony Halpin, "Russian Orthodox Church chooses between 'ex-KGB candidates' as Patriarch" The Times (of London) online, January 26, 2009, available online http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/faith/article2100100.ece
  12. ↑ (in Russian) Митрополит Кирилл попал в поле зрения американской газеты Archived 2013-05-25 at the Wayback Machine The Washington Times January 26, 2005.
  13. ↑ (in Russian) Разведка России использует Эстонскую Православную Церковь Archived February 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Simon Araloff, AIA European section, May 17, 2006.
  14. ↑ (in Russian) Американская газета назвала митрополита Кирилла возможным преемником Алексия II
  15. ↑ (in Russian) Священник Георгий Эдельштейн опасается, что патриархом станет «офицер КГБ, атеист и порочный человек» www.grani.ru May 27, 2003.
  16. ↑ (in Russian) Божественные голоса Archived January 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine The New Times № 50, December 15, 2008.
  17. ↑ Halpin, Tony (January 26, 2009). "Russian Orthodox Church chooses between 'ex-KGB candidates' as Patriarch". London: Times Online . Retrieved 2009-01-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.