The Bulgarian Orthodox Church elects Metropolitan Neophyte—like most of the church’s leaders, a former Communist agent—as its patriarch:
His reputation as one of the most deserving candidates for the patriarchal throne risked being marred last year after revelations that he was among 11 of the 15 top bishops of Bulgaria’s Holy Synod — the Orthodox Church’s highest authority — who were former secret intelligence agents under the Communist dictatorship.
Neophyte’s thin file however was later proven to contain mostly reports against him.
“I never wanted to defame anyone or benefit from the privileges of the Darzhavna Sigurnost secret police,” he then commented.
Neophyte had asked to be relieved from his duties as agent immediately after the regime fell on November 10, 1989. . . .
He will now be entrusted with the key task of bringing disillusioned Bulgarians back to the church, which has been slow to play any significant role in society after being severely crippled during the 45-year communist rule.
February 25th, 2013 | 8:26 am
I expect to see in FT a historian discussing the parallels, and the differences, between this situation in Bulgaria and that of the Donatists.
February 25th, 2013 | 2:49 pm
Patriarch Neofit is regarded as gentle, humble, sober, scholarly, and devoted to Christ and His Church. The situation involving Communist collusion of Bulgarian hierarchs is easy enough to decry, for obvious reasons–as it was also with the compromises of the Moscow Patriarchate. But the historical reality is more complex. A recent Sophia Globe article notes the following about then Metropolitan Neophit:
“Neofit said that he felt no guilt about complying with something that had been a requirement when travelling outside the country. State Security had been interested in conferences and meetings abroad and after his return from abroad, what had happened and what meetings there had been. This in no way prejudiced those with whom meetings and conversations had been held, he said, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported at the time.”
In other words, there’s more to the story of the Church surviving under difficult circumstances than fits under the rather uncharitable title of your post. One does not know what leverage was used against these Metropolitans, nor whether their status as agents amounted to substantive collusion or, as now-Patriarch Neofit has maintained, little more than the creation of a file containing a few trivial facts. It is well enough understood by those from Eastern Europe that enrollment as an agent often meant little more than the creation of an empty file.
Another example of the complexity is seen in the fact that one Bulgarian Metropolitan immediately offered his resignation when he was found to have a state file (which showed not more than *potential* collusion with the communist government), and this more than a year before it was revealed that he was a communist agent. In that instance, his diocese unanimously and roundly made him retract that resignation, as he is widely respected as a shepherd of utmost piety, integrity, simplicity…
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