Report on the attitude of Bishop Nicolae Popovici towards the people’s union (January 28, 1950)

Comrade Inspector,

In my capacity as an official of the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Oradea, I bring the following to your attention, so that you may communicate it to those who have the right to know and take the measures required by the circumstances. In 1949, the Most Holy Bishop Nicolae Popovici removed me from the diocese and placed me in the school of singers, in order to take revenge on me for my pro-Union stance.

In the autumn of 1949, thanks to the kindness of the bishop’s staff and Father Andrei Coman, I was transferred back to the diocese with my post and everything else, where our union struggle had to continue as before. The Honourable Ministry approved the transfer, but the Bishop made a fuss about taking me back to the Bishopric. Now the Most Holy Father is always after my head and wants to punish me by dismissing me in any way he can, by creating a file with serious accusations, for example, he sent me an address signed only by the Most Holy Father, in which he seriously insults me as a family man. I enclose a copy of the letter. I am thinking of taking him to court, but I do not know what to do. At the meeting of the Eparchial Council, the bishop agreed with me in the absence of evidence. Then the bishop stormed out of the meeting and said he would dismiss me on his own authority.

He constantly treats us and the officials as a director, not as a father of souls, he only gives his people rewards for their work, and he constantly threatens us with dismissal and other serious insults.

Oradea, 28 January 1950

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF ROMANIA!

ss/Zaharia Moga

(ACNSAS, Information Fund, file 2669, vol. 1, f. 55. Document reproduced in The Courage to Speak: Bishop Nicolae Popovici of Oradea, edited by George Enache and Adrian Nicolae Petcu, Partener Publishing House, Galați, 2009, p. 129).