Father Iliescu-Palanca in the Nistru mine camp

The camp at the Nistru mine was run by two Szekler officers, lieutenants, assisted by two other Hungarian-speaking officers who could also be Szekler or Hungarian. (…)

In this mine we also found seven priests. Among them was Dumitru Iliescu-Palanca, honorary protopope, translator of Ilie Minat’s sermons.

A few months after my arrival, in August 1951, I was assigned to work with him. He was a priest in Bucharest, in a small church like a jewel, Stavropoleos. I had seen him in the camp, as a priest, a beauty. He didn’t impose himself on me and I didn’t feel attracted to him. Now it was just the two of us working together. He was very self-confident. He told me his plans:

– We’ll be out of prison soon. Communism will fall, and the Americans will rule the world after the fall of communism. Romania will be a free country and our Church will be free from its present yoke. I will become Minister of Religious Affairs. I will then take care of the publication of a newspaper, and it will have to go abroad. I want to have a good man in every county, one of my own. Wherever you go, Your Holiness, you will be my man of trust. I’ve also captured Nicolae Pâslaru. He’s a very good man, and Your Holiness seems weaker, but still good. Please intonate a few litanies to see how you sound.

I said a few litanies, the echo of which was lost in the gallery.

– Convenient, he agreed.

He lived with this complex of grandeur. I asked myself: in what world does he live?

(Nicolae Grebenea – Memories from the Dark, p. 272)