December 18, 2003
Meeting the Patriarch
I also met Father Teoctist Arapasu, Romania's Patriarch. Well, we shook hands and exchanged nods, though we didn't actually talk. He was very impressive in his Patriarchal robes.
When I got home and googled him, I was amazed to find that Fr. Teoctist was born in 1915. He's 88 years old! What's surprising about this is that he really, really doesn't look it. I wouldn't have guessed he was a day past 75. He was moving right along, shaking hands and working the crowd, still perfectly quick on his feet. Pretty impressive for a guy who's almost 90.
Teoctist is another guy with an interesting story. He became Patriarch under Ceausescu, and worked quite closely with the Communist authorities: he served as a deputy in the National Assembly, acquiesced in the government's destruction of "inappropriate" churches, and was a key member of the Ceausescu-sponsored National Peace Committee. And when the first demonstrations against Ceausescu began, he sent the dictator a telegram of support.
But a few weeks later, after the Ceausescu's had fallen, he resigned. It's unclear to what extent this was voluntary, as a few weeks later he announced that he couldn't leave office without his own consent. But anyhow, he was out of power for three months.
Then, at the request of a majority of the Romanian Orthodox Synod, he returned. There was a large minority of the Synod that objected, saying that Teoctist was compromised and should have stayed gone. However, the majority view (which seems to have been that nobody's hands were clean, so that it wasn't appropriate to single out Teoctist) prevailed. Teoctist came back, and he's been Patriarch ever since.
Since then, the relationship between the Romanian government and the Orthodox Church has been... somewhat complicated. It's clear that Teoctist is very close to the present administration; apparently he makes regular appearances in the Legislature, and is also seen regularly supporting government positions on TV. Whether this represents the thinking of the Church as a whole is not clear to me.
More on this, perhaps, if I ever think I understand it a little better. (For those who are interested, here's a Radio Free Europe article that seems like a good starting place.)
Meanwhile, I pass along one response I got, when I mentioned how young and vigorous Teoctint appeared: "Why not? He managed to become his own successor."