Teodosie, the Prosecuted

The Archbishop of Tomis is investigated by prosecutors for bribery and complicity to intellectual forgery. The guests coming from the country and from abroad were left alone, in the Archbishop Castle, by His Holiness, who went to the mountains. 

Tags: IPS [His Holiness] Teodosie, IPS inquired for bribery, constantin stoica, eugen tănăsescu, Archbishop of Tomis, bribe

On the 5^th of May edition of "România Liberă" newspaper, the incognito reporters of the daily publication were presenting in the article "How much is the Holy Spirit in Romania", the way in which those having a call and equally those having no call to church may become priests just like that. On one condition: to avoid the canon of the Orthodox Church.

The editors of the newspaper told us how one of them succeeded in becoming a student within Constanţa Theological College, in March, although it had been six months since the academic year had begun. "The fact that we were in March 2009 and the university courses had started six months before, was no impediment to him. The Archbishop Teodosie ordered the inspector of the Catechise Office, priest Emil Cosmin Brăescu, to prepare the applying file.

Right away, the priest drew up the needed papers", they say. In order to help him, it seems that the inspector would have received a bottle of whisky and four thousand lei. The two journalists narrated that they experimented no problems when the freshman wished to become a deacon, the first stage in turning into a real priest. Here came into scene a certain Bogdan, the personal secretary of IPS Teodosie. "We could only later understand why the Archbishop wanted to know if the journalist was rich. Bogdan, the personal secretary of IPS Teodosie sent us the message that we had to pay 1,500.00 Euros. According to what Bogdan said, the money was to be used for buying the prelate a present. We told him that we could only pay 500 Euros, for the beginning, and the trustful helping man of the Archbishop accepted this anticipated payment. The meeting with Bogdan was held in a gas station in Bucharest", România Liberă is stating. According to their declarations, the incognito journalists put an end to their investigation when His Holiness asked them 5,000.00 Euros as a loan, through the agency of Bogdan.

He wished to inquire himsefl

In the very morning in which the incriminating article was published, the clerical figure vanished from the face of the earth. The one in charge of unmuddling all this was the priest Eugen Tănăsescu, spokesman of Tomis Archbishoprics, who, within the press conference organised yesterday afternoon, browned himself off and denied everything. To cut it short, he had no answers to most of the questions asked by journalists, concerning the sanctions his superior was likely to experience or other aspects related to this scandal. "We declare that this is an attempt of setting up His Holiness Teodosie with some supposed unlawful acts, as presently, one of the authors of the article, who introduced himself as Răchită Petrică, is not a registered student with the 1^st year Theological College. Consequently, we have started an internal investigation in order to find out how much of the information presented in this article is real and how much is fabricated", this was the point of view of Tomis Archbishoprics. Actually, the investigation consists of some priests trying to establish if the film incriminating the hierarch is counterfeit or not. "I myself can produce a paper (i.e., the document attesting the college register) and make a movie with it. (...) We will not comment on the items filmed, which may be editing cuts or other things. We have initiated an investigation to find out what actually happened", Tănăsescu said. An internal investigation, which, hilariously enough, is presided by the defendant. We are referring to "an investigation within the Archbishoprics, carried on by the commission of Church Consistory which is under the supervision of IPS Teodosie. In the first place, we are talking about accuses to his person. He is running the inquiry and he will centralise all data".

His Holiness is hiding into the mountains

As said before, the very morning the incriminating article was published, His Holiness left his guests coming from the country and from abroad, alone, in the Archbishop Castle and went to the mountains. Let us remind you that yesterday there began the international symposium "Saint Basil the Great and the actuality of capadocian theology", which is reuniting church figures coming from Germany, Great Britain or Italy and which should have been presided by IPS Teodosie. In spite of this, in the morning this event started, the Archbishop of Tomis turned tail and retreated into the mountains. Officially speaking, he didn't hide from the public opinion, he only had an important ceremony, which he had to take part in. So important was this ceremony, that the representative of Tomis Archbishoprics, who was left behind to clean up the mess, was not able to provide any details about it. "At this time (i.e., 5^th of May, 12.40 hrs) he is on his way to Neamţ, as he has an important activity to be carried out there. I will make no comment on His Holiness schedule".

Investigated for bribery

As a follow to România Liberă article, the Prosecutors' Office of Constanţa Tribunal have started an investigation. Presently, the prosecutors are investigating the hierarch of Tomis for bribery and complicity to intellectual forgery, and also the inspector of the Catechise Office, priest Emil Cosmin Brăescu, for complicity to bribery.

It's the decision of Patriarch Daniel

According to priest Constantin Stoica, spokesman of Romanian Orthodox Church, the situation of the Archbishop of Tomis will be analysed by Patriarch Daniel. "The metropolitan of the place, in this case the Patriarch Daniel himself, as Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrugja, has the obligation to analyse all the intimations referring to archbishops, bishops and vicar bishops from the eparchies within the metropolis, decides their investigation with the Permanent Synod and informs the Holy Synod the result of the investigation", priest Stoica declared.