Romanian Senate Legal Committee Shelters Priests From Communist Hunters

Another amendment brought was the removal of the term "collaborator assimilated."

The amendment was enacted with five pros, two cons and one abstention, from the president of the legal committee, Norica Nicolai.

"What’s left is the complete removal of the text. Priestly will probably no longer be checked by CNSAS (the National College for the Study of Securitate Archives)," said Nicolai at the end of debates.

She added she will insist on the enactment of the amendment proposed by her, through which priests would only be checked if their cult requests it.

Democrat liberal senator Constantin Gheorghe said priests must not be removed from the CNSAS law, "as long as this area was found to contain collaborators."

Greater Romania Party Senator Virginia Vedinas, however, said "state authorities can rule measures for all social categories guilty of political police, except priests."

"The Church needs to be a pillar of society, the Church must not be soiled,” she said.

Vedinas added that, even though CNSAS is designed as an instrument of political unmasking, this situation has, “on several occasions”, proven to be an instrument of political police. "Leave the Church alone!" she demanded, adding that priests are of divine authority, not a stately one.

Senators also removed the term "collaborator assimilated" from the CNSAS law, a term that means "people who, in positions of political or legal decision, made decisions, on central or local levels, regarding the activities of the Securitate, or regarding other repressive activities of the communist totalitarian regime, which targeted the limitation of man’s fundamental rights and liberties."

Another amendment enacted by the members of the legal committee targeted the definition of the notion “Securitate collaborator.” Thus, the collaborator is the individual who, with intent, supplied Securitate with information, corroborated with other evidence.

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