Articol de Rodica Bordeianu

Cu o auto-justificare continua fata de crime facute contra a milioane de oameni nevinovati, demonstrand lipsa de introspectie, sau vre-o dorinta de a-si asuma vre-o responsabilitate pentru acte de genocid din trecut, de violenta generala contra populatiei civile, de catre persecutorii comunisti, nu numai ca nu se vor uita crimele trecutului, dar se vor continua nedreptati si in ziua de azi fata de partile vulnerabile ale societatii noastre. Gabriel Teodor Gherasim, autor Victimele Comunistilor si Persecutorii Lor

Victimele Comunistilor si Persecutorii Lor (Victims of Communism and Their Persecutors) publicata in acest an de Publish America, este o noua carte a lui Gabriel Gherasim, care imbina marturiile supravietuitorilor din temnitele comuniste, cu o analiza paralela a persecutiilor populatiilor neputincioase din aparheidului Africii de Sud, din lagarele de exterminare naziste, si din suferintele de pe ambele fronturi ale conflictului israelo-palestinian. In plus, raspunde dorintei de dreptate a victimelor comunistilor si a urmasilor lor, cu o metodologie de mediere care s-a dovedit a da rezultate pozitive de-a lungul istoriei, atunci cand a fost implementata in mod etic si impartial fata de toate partile afectate de conflict.

In plus, in mod in mod diferit de justitia punitiva, care cere numai retributii de la abuzatori, fara a se interesa de recalibrarea dinamicii dintre victime si persecutorii lor, Victimele Comunistilor si Persecutorii Lor propune o paradigma de justitie restaurativa, respectiv, de a crea premizele reparatorii pentru victime, in timp ce persecutorii si/sau urmasii acestora se reincadreaza in sanul societatii de be baze egalitare, si nu privilegiate ca pana acum.

Partea Intai a cartii analizeaza premiza de cum ar putea procesul de justitie restaurativa ca sa aduca atat restitutii, cat si ca sa transforme dinamica dintre victimele comunistilor si a persecutorilor lor.

Partea a Doua a cartii include recapitularea a catorva componente importante din literatura si pratica specialistilor din negociere, mediere si conciliere, in ceea ce priveste partile abuzate si abuzatorii lor. Printre aceste concepte enumeram: dilema prizonierului; comnicare intragrup si intergroup; tactici de negociere, mediere, si elemente de conflict intercultural.

Partea a Treia discuta cateva aspecte din concepte de justitie precum: justitie restaurativa; metodologie; istoricul teoriilor comuniste si aplicarea acestora in distrugerea omenirii; efecte intrapersonale; efecte interpersonale; si efecte globale.

Partea a Patra analizeaza o solutie satisfacatoare la dilema repararii holocaustului communist fata de victimele sale precum: administrarea conflictului; folosirea conceptelor analitice vizavi de cele sintetice; realitatea sociala vizavi de concurenta constructiva; transformarea conflictului din retributiv in restaurativ ; mediere ca reparare a persecutiilor comuniste; diplomatia multi-dimensionala; pluralism conform regulilor; dreptate in contextul rezolutiei conflictelor; elemente convingatoare si puncte vulerabile din cadrul justitiei restaurative.

Partea a Cincea propune crearea si aplicarea unor proiecte educative si comemorative in societate, ca sa informeze publicul elevilor, al studentilor si al adultilor, asupra exemplelor de violenta comunista, si cum pot supravietuitorii persecutiilor comuniste, cat si persecutorii lor, ca sa gaseasca un sens in tragedia care s-a intamplat , si inca se mai intampla in tari comuniste si neo-comuniste, la oameni a caror “vina” este numai aceea ca nu sunt considerati de “origine sanatoasa”, sau pentru ca isi doresc libertatea pe care comunistii le-au luat-o.

Iata cateva din recenziile ale cartii:

Gary Revel, Actor/Regizor, Hollywood California:

Victimele Comunistilor si Persecutorii Lor propune un model de justitie restaurativa ca sa repare distrugerea creata de 94 de ani de crime si persecutii (neo)comuniste.

Este o analiza din perspectiva negociatorului diplomatic al genocidelor comuniste, folosind marturiile supravietuitorilor din inchisorile comuniste, a ceea ce a insemnat Holocaustul Rosu in Europa, cu particulara atentie la cazul Romaniei.

Cartea detaileaza cauzele, procedurile, si efectele care au afectat populatii intregi prim crimele comunistilor, la nivele intra si inter personale.

Autorul discuta antecedentele, comportamentele, consecintele si solutiile pentru rezolvarea victimizarii a milioane de oameni nevinovati, atat la dimensiuni micro cat si macro sociale.

Folosind experienta comunista si post-comunista a Europei, autorul propune o continuare a intelegerii si educarii populatiei asupra efectelor inca tangibile astazi ale crimelor comuniste din Europa, cat si o privire atenta la dictaturile comuniste care raman inca o plaga a societatilor contemporane de azi, din China in Cuba, si din Vietnam in Nord-Coreea.

Este ironic ca ignoranta asupra crimelor comuniste naste crearea si recrearea de monstrii, inclusiv in Statele unite. De exemplu, in 2010, in acelasi an cand Georgia a demolat statuia lui Stalin din Grozni, America a ridicat o statuie lui Stalin in orasul Bedford, statul Virginia. Fundatia D-Day care a platit peste $ 1,000,000 ca sa monteze aceasta statuie a unui dictator care a omorat milioane de oameni, il considera inca astazi pe Stalin ca pe un erou de valoare al Europei. Prin ridicarea acestei statui, victimelor comunismului, inclusiv refugiatilor politici si religosi din America care au conoscut lanturile si temnitele comuniste (printre care se gaseste si tatal autorului), li se cere in mod impertinent ca sa traiasca in continuare cu explicatia idilica precum ca ocupantii rusi si comunisti ai Europei ar fii fost de fapt “eliberatori democratici.” Prin urmare, cartea lui Gabriel Gherasim se dovedeste a fii o lectura necesara si actuala nu numai pentru societatile care au supravietuit dictaturilor comuniste, dar si un material educativ pentru tarile care au fost ferite de pacostea rosie. 

Dr. Theodor Damian, Profesor de Filozofie si Etica, Colegiul Metropolitan din New-York. Presedinte al Institutului Roman de Teologie si Spiritualitate Ortodoxa:

Cartea lui Gabriel Teodor Gherasim’s Victimele Comunistilor si Persecutorii Lor este o lectura necesara pentru cititorii de pe ambele parti ale Atlanticului, pentru ca uneste metode de analiza si remediere ale confictelor din scoala americana de consiliere, cu marturisile, analizele si observatiile de la fata locului, a ceea ce a insemnat Holocaustul Comunist pentru Europa. In acelasi timp, autorul nefiind afiliat politic nici unui partid sau a vre-unei ideologii, reuseste sa ramana, sa descrie si sa propuna in mod obiectiv solutii la cea mai grava problema a secolului 20, care a ramas inca nerezolvata: crimele comunismului. Aceste crime raman unul din cele mai respingatoare episoade ale istoriei umanitatii din toate timpurile. 

In general, dupa cum autorul insusi a spus: “Daca ignoram, justificam, si minimalizam crimele comunismului, facem atat un act de imensa nedreptate fata de victimele comunismului, cat si invitam in viata contemporana si pentru generatiile viitoare dictaturi si suferinte asemanatoare. O reala vizualizare, onorare, comemorare si redresare a suferintelor victimelor comunismului, inseamna de fapt un act de dreptate fata de intreaga societate care a suferit aceste atrocitati, de pe urma carora suferim si ne vindecam inca si in ziua de azi.”

O prezentarea video a cartii se poate viziona la You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGon7M9NJEc&feature=channel_video_title

Cartea poate fii comandata in format tiparit de la Amazon, Publish America si de la alte edituri de internet.

http://www.amazon.ca/Victims-Communism-Their-Persecutors-Restorative/dp/1462609589/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309090905&sr=1-1

De asemenea, cartea poate fii comandata in formal electronic Kindle de la

http://www.amazon.com/Victims-Communism-Their-Perpetrators-ebook/dp/B0057XSD40/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1309034738&sr=1-1

Alte articole de Gabriel Gherasim, Seria Romaniana:

http://www.revistanoinu.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=76&Itemid=100006

Etichete: comunism, Gabriel Tudor Gherasim, genocid, justitie, persecutie, Rodica Bordeianu, victime

Etichete: anticomunist, Catacombes, exil, militant, Sergiu Grossu

Unul dintre cei a căror credinţă a fost greu încercată în regimul comunist este preotul greco-catolic Tertulian Langa. El a fost închis în temniţă între anii 1948 şi 1964. Textul care urmează îl are ca autor şi a fost prezentat la Roma in cadrul Simpozionului cu tema “Martirii Secolului XX” care s-a desfasurat la 23 martie 2004. 

Avandu-l ca formator spiritual, inca din frageda adolescenta, pe cel care va deveni Episcopul Martir Ioan Suciu, iar mai apoi ca mentori intelectuali pe alti trei martiri – Monseniorul Vladimir Ghika, Episcopul Vasile Aftenie si Episcopul Tit-Liviu Chinezu, toti victime ale comunismului ateu – era firesc ca intreaga mea viata sa poarte amprenta spiritualitatii lor. Prin dansii am aflat ce este comunismul, ce inseamna eliminarea lui Cristos din viata sociala, si cat de mutilat poate sa ajunga sufletul uman, intreaga societate si familia fara Biserica, fara Preasfanta Euharistie si cultul Preacuratei. In plus, ca om cu simtul realitatilor istorice si sociale, nu am putut sa ignor masiva si amenintatoarea prezenta sovietica atee la granitele Romaniei si ale spiritualitatii noastre. Acestor factori li se datoreaza intreaga mea orientare spirituala si istorica in viata. Mie imi revine doar receptivitatea.

Prezenta violenta si atroce a comunismului ateu nu a constituit pentru occidentali o realitate imediata si concreta. Aceasta explica deosebirea flagranta de perceptie si de reactie fata de comunism pe care le manifesta crestinii si intelectualii din Occident, comparativ cu cei din Europa de Est, care au trait in lumea comunista.

La 24 de ani, in 1946, eram un proaspat asistent la Facultatea de Filozofie a Universitatii din Bucuresti. Prezenta brutala si umilitoare a trupelor sovietice, care ne ocupasera aproape o treime din teritoriul tarii, am resimtit-o, la modul personal, prin faptul ca mi s-a pretins, ca membru al Corpului Didactic universitar, sa ma inscriu urgent in Sindicatele manipulate de Partidul Comunist impus la carma tarii de tancurile sovietice.

Inca de atunci eram deplin edificat asupra fermei atitudini magistrale pe care Biserica Catolica o luase impotriva comunismului, pe care il declarase ca avand o rautate intrinseca. Cu aceasta informatie principiala radicala, nu incapeau in constiinta mea pretexte pentru compromis. Am renuntat la cariera universitara, dandu-mi spontan demisia din invatamant si retragandu-ma la tara ca muncitor agricol. Dar nu a fost suficient pentru ca eram cunoscut, inca din facultate, ca militant catolic si anticomunist. Rapid mi s-a improvizat si un dosar penal. Si deoarece acuzatiile se intemeiau pe fapte pe care Codul Penal nu le incriminase la vremea respectiva (relatii stranse cu Episcopatul nostru, relatii cu Nuntiatura, ca si apostolatul laic, etc) dosarul meu a fost legat de cel al marii industrii. Dupa procedee atroce de ancheta, procurorul, in instanta, a declarat, “La dosarul inculpatului nu se afla nici o proba despre vinovatia lui, dar cerem sanctiunea maxima: 15 ani de munca silnica pentru ca, daca n-ar fi vinovat, nu s-ar afla aici,” intr-o perfecta logica atee. Am replicat, “Nu se poate sa ma condamnati fara sa aveti o proba!” “Nu se poate? Uite ca se poate: 20 de ani de munca silnica fiindca ai protestat impotriva Justitiei Poporului. Aceasta este sentinta definitiva si irevocabila.” Deci s-a putut…

Consider ca este un exemplu edificator, pentru oricine, despre ce inseamna o justitie comunista, cea pe care noi am indurat-o si inca o mai induram acum cand intram in Europa.

Aceasta se intampla pe cand Biserica Greco-Catolica din Romania inca nu fusese scoasa in afara legii, cand se sconta ca arestarea si torturarea mea vor izbuti sa faca din mine un instrument in benficiul viitoarei incriminari a Episcopilor nostri, a Bisericii Unite si a Nuntiaturii.

Redau doar cateva momente mai semnificative, din sutele pe care le-am trait, in timpul anchetelor si detentiei in temnitele si lagarele comuniste.

Am fost arestat la Blaj in biroul Episcopului Ioan Suciu, pe atunci Administrator Apostolic al Mitropoliei Greco-Catolice din Romania. Ma prezentasem la Capul Bisericii noastre pentru a cere o consultatie Preasfintei Providente, directorul meu spiritual, Mons. Vladmir Ghika, fiind pe atunci ascuns. Un bun prieten imi propusese o cale de a pleca in strainatate. Fiind un pas major n-am vrut sa il fac fara avizul Providentei. Avizul a venit prin arestarea mea, tocmai acolo unde cercetasem Providenta. Am inteles ca imi voi petrece viata, pe timp nelimitat, in inchisorile create de regimul comunist. Dar eram impacat: urmam traseul Sfintei Providente…

Descriu acum un anumit moment. Era in Joia Sfanta a anului 1948. Pana atunci, timp de vreo doua saptamani, zilnic eram batut la locul de tortura si de cercetare Malmaison: cu ranga si cu teava la talpi, peste bocanci, cu cablul peste fese, peste pulpe si la palme. Cand ma bateau la talpi adevarate traznete pareau ca imi strabat sira spinarii si imi explodeaza in creier; eram pregatit cu ranga ca sa ajung mai moale la anchetator. Legat de maini si de picioare si atarnat cu capul spre podea, tortionarii mi-au infundat in gura un ciorap intens purtat, in ghete si in gura, de alti beneficiari ai umanismului socialist. Ciorapul devenise noua metoda antifonica prin care se impiedica razbirea sunetului dincolo de locul de ancheta. De altfel, era cu neputinta sa scot chiar si un singur icnet. Si, pe deasupra, ma autoblocasem psihic: nu mai eram capabil de strigat sau miscare. Tortionarii au interpretat aceasta ca semn de fanatism. Continuau mai indarjiti tortura. Noapte de noapte si zi de zi. Nu intrebau nimic caci nu raspunsul ii interesa ci lichidarea personalitatii, stare care intarzia sa apara, tot prelungind efortul de a-mi anihila vointa, de a-mi obnubila gandirea, si imi prelungea indefinit tortura. Bocancii sfarticati cazura din picioare, bucata cu bucata.

Dar in apropiere, in adanc de noapte, intr-o biserica stinghera se celebra o sfanta slujba, plansa in sonuri stinse de clopote speriate. Am tresarit. Isus a auzit intregul racnet mut din mine cand, cumva, am urlat. O, cum am mai racnit! Ca dintr-un fund de iad: ISUSE! ISUSE! … Scos prin ciorap, racnetul meu nu a fost priceput. Dar, fiind primul sunet pe care l-au auzit calaii, acestia au fost multumiti, considerand ca, in sfarsit, m-au lamurit. Apoi m-au dus, tarat cu patura, pana in celula in care am lesinat. Cand m-am trezit, in fata mea statea anchetatorul, tinand in mana un top gros de hartie: “Te-ai incapatanat, banditule, dar nu scapi de aici pana nu dai tot ce tii ascuns in tine. Ai 500 de pagini. Scrii tot ce ai trait in viata; tot despre mama, despre tata, despre surori si frati, cumnati si rude, colegi si cunoscuti, Episcopi, preoti, calugari si calugarite si despre oamenii politici, profesori, vecini si derbedei de-ai tai. Nu te opresti pana n-ai terminat hartia.” Dar nu am scris nimic, nu din vreun fanatism ci fiindca nu aveam putere.

Dupa vreo patru zile, acelasi individ: “Ai terminat de scris?” Vazand hartia neatinsa, a zis: “Daca asa stau lucrurile: dezbracarea! Sa mi te vad ca pe Adam in Rai!” Desigur, iarasi nu am scris nimic. Nu numai trupul dar parca si mintea mi-era secatuita. Trecura, astfel, alte cateva zile traite in pielea goala pe pardoseaua de mozaic: confort specific socialismului uman. Alt individ mi se ivi, dupa un timp, in usa, “Ia sa te vad, ce ai acolo pe hartie? … Nu ai nimic? Tot incapatanat! Avem si alte metode.” Apoi iesi pe usa. Se intorsese cu un caine lup imens cu coltii fiorosi. “O vezi? Este Diana, cateaua eroina, pe care au impuscat-o banditii tai din muntii Fagaras. Ea te va invata ce trebuie sa faci. Porneste si alearga.” Cum sa alerg in camera de numai trei metri? Lupoaica, maraind sinistru, statea ca pregatita de atac. Am alergat sub ochii si sub coltii ei 39 de ore fara nici o intrerupere. Dar, finalmente, am cazut. Nu am acum ragaz sa va descriu psihologia unei alergari pandita de lupoaica. Cand m-am oprit s-a repezit la mine. M-a prins de gat dar nu mi-a sfasiatul gatlejul. Cum stam, asa, pe spate, vedeam deasupra mea o forma fumurie. Nu desluseam ce e. Abia cand, pe frunte si pleoape, am simtit ca-mi curge ceva usturator si cald, am inteles ca bestia, in scarba, mi-a urinat pe fata. Din vorbele tortionarilor am inteles ca am alergat 39 de ore. “Pe asta sa-l trimitem, ma, la Maratonul de la Rio! Ce rezistenta are bestia fascista!”

Vazandu-se ca nici chiar Maratonul nu a reusit sa ma convinga sa dau vreo declaratie despre Episcop, despre Nuntiatura, ori despre vreun camarad vanat, au socotit de bine sa treaca la alta metoda de convingere: saculetul de nisip.

A doua zi, intr-un birou de sef, m-au asezat pe un scaun, avand in fata o masa cu un saculet pe ea. Nu descifram decorul. In spate mi s-a protapit un haidamac de groaza: mut, ca o intreaga tara cu gura infundata. La un birou din colt statea un individ chel si cu barbison de tap. Iar s-ar fi invoit sa semene cu Lenin. De asemeni mut si el, facu doar semn cu capul. Calaul meu din spate a inteles comanda. A luat cu mana saculetul si m-a izbit in crestet, nu foarte violent, dar ritmic, la fiecare busitura rostind cuvantul greu: SPUNE! Si iarasi: SPUNE! De zece ori, de zeci de ori, de sute, sau nu stiu, parca de mii de ori: SPUNE! Nimeni nu ma intreba nimic. Numai o voce cavernoasa imi implanta in creier ideea imperativa si irepresibila de a spune, de a raspunde la orice intrebare impusa constiintei mele de catre anchetator. Nu mi-a fost greu sa descifrez satanica idee de a-mi elimina si subordona vointa. Dupa vreo douazeci de lovituri, am aplicat, si acolo, principiul moral: Agere contra, zicandu-mi in constiinta: NU SPUN! La fiecare lovitura: NU SPUN! De zece, de sute de ori. Prin autosugestie mi-am implantat stereotipul NU SPUN! – singurul mod de a nu fi manevrabil, cu riscul de a deveni robul acestui mod de exprimare. Faptul s-a si adeverit, caci, de atunci incolo, automat, irepresibil, la orice intrebare de orice natura eu raspundeam cu NU SPUN! Imi constientizasem blocajul intelectual si chiar intrevedeam o permanentizare a acestei stari. Am incercat timp de mai multe luni sa o combat dar foarte greu am reusit sa scap de acel sinistru reflex automat.

Ca subiect lipsit de valoare in anchete, am fost mutat la inchisoarea subterana din zona mlastinoasa a Jilavei, adanca, la opt metri sub pamant, care fusese contruita candva ca fort de aparare a Capitalei tarii, acum fiind inutilizabila datorita puternicelor infiltratii de apa ce strabateau betonul. Nimic nu rezista in ea. Doar omul, cel mai de pret tezaur al materialismului istoric! In incaperile Jilavei, sarmanii oameni faceau experienta de sardele: dar nu in baie de ulei ci in suc propriu, in transpiratii, in urina si in apele de infiltratii care mereu se scurgeau pe ziduri. Spatiul – exemplu de confort socialist – era exploatat in modul cel mai stiintific: lung de 2 metri si lat de 28 cm, de fiecare om, intins, intepenit pe flanc. Unii, mai vechi, stateau intinsi pe scanduri, fara vreun asternut sub ei si fara nici o patura. Contactul cu scandura se facea prin osul umeral, prin protuberanta cea mai ascutita a articulatiei coxo-femurale, prin partea exterioara a genunchiului si a gleznei. Stateam pe varf de oase pentru a ocupa un spatiu cat mai mic. Mana nu incapea decat intinsa peste sold sau peste umarul vecinului. Nu rezistam asa decat vreo jumatate de ora; apoi toti, la comanda, caci nu se putea pe rand si separat, ne intorceam pe flancul celalalt. Stiva de trupuri, astfel randuite, avea doua niveluri, alcatuind un prici. Sub ele se mai afla un al treilea nivel, in care detinutii zaceau direct pe ciment, ciment pe care aburii de condens ai transpiratiei a 70 de oameni, plus apele de infiltratie, ca si urina care nu incapuse in tinete, constituiau amestecul vascos in care viermuiau cei randuiti sub priciuri. In centrul acestei incaperi cavou de la Jilava trona un vas metalic, cam de 70-80 de litri, pentru urina si fecalele a 70 de oameni. Nu avea capac si de aceea mirosul si urina se revarsau din plin. Ca sa ajungi aici, se presupune ca ai trecut prin filtru, adica printr-un control sever efectuat la pielea goala, control in care ni se verifica intregul organism si orice orificiu. Cu o bagheta de lemn se scormonea in gura, sub limba si pe la gingii ca nu cumva banditii sa fi ascuns ceva. Aceeasi bagheta ne sfredelea in nari si in urechi, in anus, sub testicule, ea ramanand neschimbata pentru fiecare om, cam semn al egalitarismului care asigura aceeasi norma pentru toti. Ferestrele de la Jilava nu erau pentru a oferi lumina ci pentru a o opri, caci toate erau batute in scanduri. Criza de aer era atat de mare incat, pentru a respira, trei cate trei ne succedam, cu randul, pe burta, cu gura langa pragul usii, pozitie in care numaram constiincios 60 de respiratii, pentru ca si alti camarazi sa isi revina din lesin si hipoxie.

Contribuiam, in felul nostru, la construirea cele mai umane oranduiri din lume…!

Stiau aceasta Churchill si Roosevelt, cand, cu o trasatura de condei, pe masa rusinii de la Yalta, ne-au harazit, pe noi romanii, sa fim destine macinate de falcile molohului din Rasarit, sa fim cordon de siguranta pentru comoditatea lor? Dar Sfantul Scaun, oare, sa-si fi inchipuit ceva, cand, ca si in alte dati, s-a discutat de noi dar fara noi? De nobis sine nobis.

De la Jilava, sarind peste lungi ani de profanari umane, am fost mutati cu lanturi la picioare in inchisoarea de izolare maxima, numita ZARKA – pavilion de spaima al temnitei de la Aiud. Primirea ni s-a facut conform aceluiasi ritual sinistru, diabolic, de profanare a omului creat de dragostea lui Dumnezeu. Aceeasi scormonire, aceleasi cizme crunte ni se infingeau in coaste, in dinti, in burta si in rinichi. Totusi, interveni o diferentiere: nu mai eram supusi regimului de conservare in urina, sudoare, igrasie si hipoxie, ci am fost supusi unei intense cure de oxigenare. In pielea goala, bandit dupa bandit (de inteles: ministri, generali, profesori universitari, savanti, cercetatori, poeti) si subsemnatul, care nu reprezentam nimic, decat un NU SPUN! urias, o ferma si smerita incredere in harul ce ma va trece peste incercare. Toti trebuiau sa piara ca dusmani ai poporului. Altfel, nu ar fi putut sa apara mult proclamatul Om nou sovietic, om care se perpetueaza si astazi pe suferinta noastra. Celula in care am fost introdus nu continea nimic: nici pat, nici patura, nici cearsaf sau perna, nici masa, nici scaun, nici rogojina si nici macar ferestre. Doar gratii de otel, iar eu, ca si toti ceilalti, de unul singur in celula: ma minunam de mine, cel imbracat cu pielea si invelit cu frigul.

Era pe la sfarsitul lui noiembrie. Frigul se contura, tot mai patrunzator, ca incomod tovaras de celula, in iarna rece est-europeana. Dupa vreo trei zile, prin usa violent deschisa, mi s-a zvarlit un pantalon rarit, camasa cu manecile scurte, chilot, o zeghe obosita si o pereche de bocanci cu totul scorojiti, fara sireturi, fara obiele si fara ciorapi. Nici patura, nici rogojina, nimic de pus sub cap. Dar a venit si o tineta, un mizerabil obiect, de circa 4 litri, pentru urina si fecale. M-am imbracat infrigurat. In cea de a patra zi ni s-a facut numaratoarea. In loc de nume mi s-a dat un numar: K-1700 – anul in care Biserica din Transilvania se reunea cu Roma. Civilmente era deja ucis. Mai supravietuiam statistic. Veni apoi si terciul, servit cu polonicul de 125 de grame: fiertura subtire din faina de porumb, cum ar fi ciurul de la mamaliga. Ca masa de amiaza, ni s-a distribuit o ciorba de fasole in care am numarat vreo 8-9 boabe, cu ceva hoaspe goale, fara continut. Drept cina, ni s-a dat un ceai din coaja de paine arsa. Dupa o saptamana, fasolea a fost inlocuia cu zeama de arpacas, in care am descoperit cam 14 boabe. Din cand in cand fasolea alterna cu arpacasul. Traiam cu mai putin decat primeste o gaina. Pentru a face fata frigului, eram constransi sa ne miscam continuu, sa practicam gimnastica de inviorare! In clipa in care cadeam de oboseala si de foame, ne prabuseam in somn; un somn de cateva secunde caci frigul era ascutit. Dintr-un astfel de somn am fost trezit de o usoara ciocanitura in perete. Un glas de dincolo de zid: “Aici profesorul Tomescu…(fostul Ministru al Sanatatii) Tu cine esti?” Aflandu-mi numele a zis, “Am auzit de tine. Sa ma asculti atent: suntem adusi aici pentru exterminare. Nu vom colabora cu ei. Dar, cine nu este hotarat sa miste, moare si le devine colaborator. Transmite mai departe: cine nu misca, moare! Plimbare fara incetare! Cine inceteaza sa se plimbe, moare!” Pavilionul cufundat in linistile mortii, lugubru rasuna de bocanitul bocancilor fara sireturi. Eram manati de tainica vointa a neamului de a ramane in istorie si de menirea Bisericii de a ramane vie. Nu ne opream din mers decat cam pe la ora 12.30, timp de o jumatate de ora, cand soarele, in mersul sau pe cer, ni se oprea zgarcit in coltul incaperii. Acolo, ghemuit, cu soarele pe fata, prindeam un fulg de somn si o raza de speranta. Cand soarele ma parasea si el, nu eram parasit de har. Stiam ca trebuie sa supravietuiesc, ca sa depun candva o marturie. Mergeam spunandu-mi ca intr-un refren, paseam silabisind: NU VREAU SA MOR! NU VREAU SA MOR! Si nici nu am murit! Cu fiecare pas scandam in gand o rugaciune, alcatuiam litanii, poeme, rememoram din Psalmi.

Si ne-am plimbat, asa, impleticindu-ne spre moarte, 17 saptamani. Cine nu a avut tarie sau putere sa se miste a intepenit in moarte. Din cei 80 de oameni cati am intrat in ZARKA abia 30 au supravietuit.

Zabrelele de fier, incet se imbracau in promoroaca, facandu-si din aburii de viata ai rasuflarii noastre, stralucitor vestmant de trecere spre cer.

Eram convins, credeam puternic ca voi ajunge pana la marginile noptii. Dar mai aveam de mers pana sa ajung acolo. Ajuns in ceea ce imi inchipuiam ca ar trebui sa fie libertatea, am constatat ca nu era, de fapt, decat un nou fel de a fi al noptii, ca gheata dintre Biserica Unite si Ierarhia Bisericii surori nu se lasa topita inca; bisericile noastre continuau sa ramana confiscate, iar turma se imputina mereu, ucisa de promisiuni. Dar si Domnul Cristos a biruit numai cand a putut rosti, cu ultima suflare: Savarsitu-s-a!…

Smerit imi cer iertare acelor “care nu mai sunt,” ca sutele de ani traiti in inchisoare de martorii Unirii am acceptat sa ii reduc la doar cateva pagini.

Nu am prea scris despre aceste dramatice trairi. Cine ar fi putut sa creada ceea ce pare incredibil? Cine ar putea admite ca legile biologiei pot fi infrante de vointa si har? Dar daca as mai arata si norul de minuni prin care am trecut? Nu ar fi socotite fantasmagorii? Mai greu as suporta aceasta decat noi ani de inchisoare. Dar nici Isus n-a fost crezut de toti cei care L-au vazut.

Din clipa aceea, multi dintre invataceii Lui nu mai umblau cu El… (In 6.66)

Nimic nu e intamplator in viata. Orice clipita de viata pe care ne-o acorda Providenta poarta in ea un har si reprezinta asteptarea binevoitoare a lui Dumnezeu si sansa noastra de a-I raspunde, sau poate temeritatea de a refuza. Este de asteptat ca nici unul dintre noi sa nu reduca toata acestea la o povestioara dura, feroce si de necrezut. Ea reprezinta, dimpotriva, prilejul de a intelege ca harul nu impovareaza si nu il impiedica pe om, ci il inalta si ii sporeste puterile, ca portile iadului sa nu il poata birui (Mt 16.18). Iar Dumnezeu asteapta de la fiecare sa actioneze cu responsabilitate in credinta. La ce imi slujeste mie aceasta marturie pe care am depus-o, si cum va poate ajuta pe voi, care ati ascultat-o? Ea va deschide sau va inchide inima acelora care – prin voi – ajunge-vor sa o cunoasca? Din inima doresc ca ea sa le deschida larg o fereastra inspre cer; caci mult mai multa e cerimea de deasupra noastra decat pamantul de sub talpi (V.I. Ghika).

Pr. Prof. Tertulian Langa

 

Etichete: greco-catolic, inchisoare, temnită, Tertulian Langa, Vladimir Ghika

În perioada 2006 – 2007, sfidându-se legile ţării şi nou promulgata lege a cultelor, la Slobozia de Argeş s-au întâmplat lucruri care nu credeam că se pot întâmpla într-o ţară cu pretenţii democratice şi europene. Am preluat informaţiile pe care vi le punem la dispoziţie de aici, de pe blogul La Patratosu, al conf.dr.Marius Cruceru, în prezent decan al Universităţii Emanuel din Oradea. În mare, domnia sa publică un serial cu relatările pastorului baptist Cornel Peleaşe, unul dintre protagoniştii ineditelor întâmplări regretabile din comuna argeşeană.

Slobozia 1.

Pastorul Peleaşe:

“Va voi face istoricul persecutiei detaliat, prezentandu-va episoadele cele mai semnificative, iar din ele d-voastra sa retineti doar ceea ce are relevanta la forurile la care veti trimite materialul. Fac precizarea ca tot ce scriu s-a intamplat intocmai si la nevoie se poate proba cu martori.

Intai de toate va prezint cateva date generale:
-localitatea Slobozia este pozitionata in sudul judetului Arges la 65 de Km de Pitesti
-nr de locuitori : 6 000
-din 1998 functineaza Biserica misiune Bunavestire, filiala a bisericii baptiste Pitesti.
- biserica functioneaza in baza unei Autorizatii de biserica misiune.
Am inceput cu 4 credinciosi. Acum sunt 14 credinciosi.
-Pe o raza de 30-40 km nu exista nici o biserica evanghelica.

Episodul 1: septembrie 2006.

In luna august 2006, biserica din Pitesti a depus documentatia pentru eliberarea autorizatiei de constructie pentru un locas de inchinare in localitatea Slobozia. La inceputul lunii sept 2006, primarul comunei, d-l profesor Nitu Alexandru, mi-a comunicat telefonic ca s-a aflat despre demersul nostru, si intr-una din bisericile ortodoxe din comuna, prin preotul JIANU IONEL, s-a pornit o campanie de denigrare si instigare a oamenilor impotriva baptistilor. In slujbele publice, preotul ii numea pe cei 14 baptisti din comuna, rataciti, soli ai satanei, secta pagana, sectanti platiti de americani, tradatori de neam etc.

D-l primar mi-a sugerat ca in aceste conditii de tensiune iscate in comuna,ar fi intelept ca eu sa vin intr-o sedinta a consiliului local si sa motivez cererea pentru locasul de inchinare, dar in acelasi timp sa explic si cine sunt baptistii, crezul lor, diferentele intre baptisti si ortodocsi.

Dansul mi-a promis ca la aceasta sedinta vor fi doar 13 consilieri si cu mine. Am convenit impreuna data la care sa ne intalnim, si am procedat intocmai. Numai ca la data fixata, in loc de 13 consilieri am gasit in fata primariei si pe cei 7 preoti ortodocsi din bisericile din comuna, impreuna cu un grup de aproximativ 130-150 de oameni, extrem de agitati si de vocali.

Am intrat in sala de consiliu,s-a stabilit presedintele de zi (un om care a dovedit o conduita exemplara), secretarul de zi (mama preotului Jianu !!!) ordinea de zi, etc. Dupa prezentarile de rigoare s-a dat intaietate la cuvant bisericii ortodoxe, prin preotul JIANU IONEL care timp de 15 minute s-a lansat intr-o tirada de acuzatii dintre care cele mai grave au fost ca:

-baptistii sunt o secta pagana care nu are de a face cu credinta si cu Dumnezeu si care trebuie impiedicata cu orice pret sa intre in comuna ;
- locul unde baptistii vor sa-si construiasca biserica este ales strategic (intre o gradinita si o scoala), pt a fura sufletele copiilor,de aceea toti parintii sa lupte prin toate mijloacele si sa impiedice aparitia acestei biserici.
-baptistii din comuna sunt niste tradatori care si-au vandut sufletul pt dolarii americanilor.

Dupa aceste acuze grave, preotul JIANU IONEL a cerut imperativ ca toti consilierii locali sa voteze la vedere in privinta autorizatiei de constructie. Presedintele de zi insa i-a spus ca votul va fi secret. In momentul acela s-a iscat un adevarat vacarm. Preotul Jianu si multimea a inceput sa strige si sa acuze ca si consilierii ar fi fost mituiti sa-si tradeze credinta, etc.Presedintele insa a fost ferm.

Cand mi s-a dat cuvantul, am dat binete, am binecuvantat asistenta, m-am prezentat ca absolvent al Univiversăţii Bucuresti, felul în care am ajuns sa slujesc la Slobozia, am prezentat documente oficiale prin care se atesta ca baptistii sunt un Cult recunoscut in Romania, am inmanat celor ce au vrut sa primeasca si cateva exemplare cu marturisirea de credinta a Cultului nostru prin care sa vada ca avem de a face cu credinta si cu Dumnezeu.

Peste mine a inceput sa strige preotul Jianu Ionel si multi din cei ce il insoteau, de ce nu tinem tainele, de ce nu ne inchinam la icoane, de ce nu ii lasam pe ei in credinta lor etc.Am cerut permisiunea sa lamurim problema pe baza Scripturii.Drept urmare am scos biblia ortodoxa (pe care o port totdeauna cu mine), si i-am cerut preotului Jianu sa faca acelasi lucru. Mi-a raspuns ca nu o are la el. L-am rugat sa ceara de la unul din colegii lui.

Niciunul nu avea Biblie! Raspunsul a fost socant: “noi nu avem biblie, avem alte carti”. Am replicat ca nu este normal sa nu avem cu noi cartea de capatai a Bisericii! Totul a devenit din nou un vacarm.
Pe acest fond s-a ridicat primarul si a rostit aceste cuvinte:”Cand veniti la primarie cu doleantele dumneaavoastră, eu nu va primesc ca tigani sau romani, baptisti sau ortodocşi, ci va primesc in calitate de cetateni. Si eu sunt chemat sa va rezolv problemele nu in functie de etnie sau religie, ci potrivit cu legile tarii. Drept pt care va informez ca acest Cult este recunoscut in Romania, se bucura de toate drepturile, cererea lor este legala, drept pentru care Consiliul local va elibera autorizatia de Constructie. Eu am ramas uluit de atitudinea lui, dar in acelasi timp s-a dezlantuit infernul. Multimea s-a intaratat din nou, mai ales preotul Jianu, care a inceput sa-l ameninte ca va plati pentru asta si ca nu va mai fi primar. El si colegii lui vor indemna oamenii sa nu-l mai voteze in noul mandat pt ca a tradat biserica ortodoxa, ca a fost cumparat,etc.

In aceasta atmosfera s-a incheiat sedinta.
Primarul s-a tinut de cuvant.Dar si preotul Jianu.Vreme de saptamani l-a infierat in slujbele de la biserica.
Lucrurile s-au linistit treptat pana cand a aparut :

EPISODUL 2: 21 APRILIE 2007
Pe 21 aprilie aprilie barbatii din biserica din Pitesti ne-am apucat de constructia bisericii din Slobozia. Vestea s-a raspandit ca fulgerul. Preotii au inceput sa treaca nervosi la deal si la vale de nenumarate ori. Au inceput sa sune la episcopie, sa intervina si sa faca ceva pentru a stopa constructia bisericii.

Marturia o am de la vanzatoarele unui magazin de vis-a vis, unde preotii au intrat sa vada mai bine lucrarea noastra (magazinul are si etaj).

Duminica care a urmat, in repetate randuri, in timpul slujbei, preotul Jianu Ionel a instigat

oamenii sa intre pe proprietatea noastra sa surpe temelia si sa dea foc la materiale, pentru ca aceasta este biserica satanei.”

EPISODUL 3 : 1 MAI 2007

Pe data de 1 mai ( in zi libera !) Episcopia Argesului si Muscelului a solicitat primarului o audienta. S-au anuntat pentru o audienta la ora 10, dar au sosit abia la ora 18, dupa ce toata ziua au petrecut la casa preotului Jianu.

Vreme de aproape 3 ore, reprezentantii Episcopiei au facut presiuni asupra primarului si a unui consilier pe care primarul l-a luat ca martor, ca acestia sa retraga autorizatia de constructie pt Biserica Baptista. De asemenea au cerut sa vada si sa faca copii de pe proiectul nostru. Pentru ca au fost refuzati, au devenit agresivi, recurgand la amenintari subtile.

Intre timp a sosit si viceprimarul. Acesta, deranjat de atitudinea reprezentantilor Episcopiei, a avut puterea sa-i infrunte si sa-i intrebe in baza carei legi solicita retragerea autorizatiei de constructie pt un locas de cult care nu tine de Biserica ortodoxa. De asemenea in baza carei legi solicita verificarea proiectului. I-a intrebat si daca se erijeaza in organe de control.

Au plecat fara nici un rezultat.
Aici din nou devine laudabila atitudinea celor doi oameni!

EPISODUL 4: 6 MAI 2007

In duminica din 6 mai preotii ortodocsi au organizat o slujba pentru aducerea ploii, in diferite locuri ale comunei.

Unul din locurile alese de preotul Jianu a fost in fata proprietatii unde construim locasul de inchinare. În colţul proprietăţii se află o troiţă rămasă demult în paragină. In aceasta duminica de 6 mai preotul insotit de aproape 150 de oameni au venit sa sfinteasca troita punand lumanari, covoare, apa etc.

In acest loc a tinut un discurs instigator si cel mai periculos, spunand ca seceta prelungita care a facut prapad in Slobozia este pedeapsa lui Dumnezeu pentru localnici pentru ca permit inca existenta unei biserici a satanei pe teritoriul lor. Dumnezeu nu da ploaie din cauza celor 14 pocaiti.

Daca pana in 6 mai instigarile lui vizau distrugeri de bunuri, acum el instiga impotriva oamenilor.

Au trecut de cateva ori galagios pe langa casa in care credinciosii baptisti erau adunati la inchinare. Casa se afla in vecinatatea proprietatii noastre, deci si a troitei.

EPISODUL 5: 26 -27 MAI 2007

Pe 26 mai 2007 dimineata, sora Calin Maria, in casa careia functioneaza de ani de zile Biserica Baptista, si cea care ne-a donat terenul pentru biserica, a trecut la Domnul, ca urmare a unui accident vascular.

Fiind extrem de cald, sotul si cei 4 copii au hotarat sa o ingroape in ziua urmatoare, duminica 27 mai.

Baiatul defunctei a mers la cimitir sa arate groparilor locul pt groapa. Numai ca preotul Jianu “s-a intamplat” sa fie la biserica… L-a interpelat pe fiul defunctei si i-a comunicat ca isi poate inmormanta mama doar daca el oficiaza slujba de inmormantare, atat acasa cat si la biserica. In ciuda explicatiilor fiului (care este ortodox) ca mama lui si-a dorit sa fie inmormantata dupa specificul baptist, preotul Jianu a ramas categoric in raspuns: fara slujirea lui este exclusa inmormantarea in cimitirul respectiv.

Fiul a invocat si faptul ca familia si-a platit taxele catre biserica ortodoxa (sotul si 3 copii sunt ortodocsi), ca acolo sunt inmormantati inaintasii lor, ca locurile sunt cumparate etc.

Nici aceste lucruri nu putut sa-l induplece pe preotul Jianu.

In aceste conditii, familia mi-a adus la cunostinta situatia de criza care s-a ivit.

Sambata la ora 17, impreuna cu unul din diaconii bisericii, fr Dobrin Viorel, am mers la preotul Jianu. Intalnirea s-a desfasurat la Biserica ortodoxa. Vreme de 2 ore si jumatate am cautat sa-l convingem sa dea voie familiei sa sape groapa si sa ne lase sa ne desfasuram slujba. Am incercat sa discutam si omeneste, dar si sub aspect legal.

Ne-a spus ca nici macar in mormantul familiei nu o poate pune pt ca oasele ei fiind baptiste vor pangari oasele familiei ei ortodoxe.

I-am prezentat Legea Cultelor. Reactia lui a fost uluitoare. Ne-a raspuns ca pe el nu-l intereseaza legea cultelor si ca nu da doi bani pe ea. In biserica lui, Legea o face el impreuna cu enoriasii! El nu asculta decat de Episcopul Calinic, Episcopul Argesului si Muscelului. In consecinta slujba o face el. Pentru ca sora Calin mai inainte de a fi baptista a fost ortodoxa.

I-am solicitat sa dea o rezolutie pe cererea formulata de familie prin care solicita ca inmormantarea sa fie facuta de biserica baptista. A refuzat!

La ora 19.30 ne-a spus ca intrevederea s-a incheiat.

Am facut demersuri prin autoritatea locala si prin 2 senatori de Arges, care sa sesizeze ierarhii acestui preot de abuzul si gravele incalcari ale legilor.

S-au dovedit neputinciosi.

La ora 22.30 familia defunctei nu stia daca va fi sau nu inmormantarea.

La 22.45 situatia a ajuns sa fie cunoscuta si de secretarul general al Guvernului Romaniei.

Dansul a luat legatura cu primarul comunei, cu mine si cu preotul Jianu.

La ora 23.30 preotul Jianu Ionel s-a prezentat la familia defunctei plin de bunavointa, anuntandu-i ca isi pot ingropa defuncta dupa ritul baptist, dar conditioneaza ca dupa slujba baptistilor savarsita acasa, sa aibe si el slujba potrivit cu ritul ortodox, o slujba in care promite ca nu va supara pe nimeni. Iar apoi cortegiul sa fie condus de el, iar in biserica ortodoxa, sa slujim la fel ca si acasa, atat dupa ritualul baptist cat si dupa cel ortodox.

Pentru dezamorsarea situatiei s-a acceptat acest compromis.

Urmează duminica înmormîntării!

Duminica , ziua inmormantarii

La ora 13 a inceput slujba de inmormantare dupa specificul baptist, in fata unei asistente foarte mari. Potrivit cu intelegerea, slujba noastra s-a terminat la 14.15, cand preotul Jianu a inceput slujba dupa rit ortodox. Timp de o ora si ceva, uitand de promisiunea facuta, a lezat cu premeditare demnitatea familiei, memoria celei decedate, prin tinuta,atitudinile si afirmatiile facute, repetand obsesiv, de aproape o suta de ori (!!!) cu o rautate si incrancenare a fetei greu de explicat: “sa ne rugam pt izbavirea si mantuirea sufletului roabei Calin Maria, pentru ca a murit fara lumanare, fara sa se impartaseasca si fara sa se spovedeasca”.

Familia, desi ortodoxa in marea ei majoritate, a fost lezata de aceste cuvinte şi fel de comportament pentru ca sotia si mama lor a fost o femeie de exceptie, cu o reputatie deosebita. Din momentul in care sora a inchis ochii, ei au avut convingerea ca dansa este in cer. Iar acum, prin slujba pe care o tinea, preotul Jianu acredita in fata multimii ideea ca sufletul ei este pierdut.

La cimitir am condus-o pe sora noastra si noi, baptistii. . Nu numai ca baptistii nu au fost invitati sa cante, sa se roage sau sa predice, potrivit cu intelegerea, ci am fost tratati intr-un mod incalificabil. Inca de la intrarea in biserica, preotul Jianu care pana atunci isi infranase ura, spre stupefactia noastra, a racnit la cel ce filma inmormantarea, cerandu-i imperativ sa inchida camera de filmat.

Apoi, ca si cand nimic nu s-ar fi intamplat, s-a dus in altar si a inceput slujba de…”aducere a sufletului din pierzanie in fericire”. In timpul slujbei, oamenilor li se cerea sa ingenuncheze. Vazand ca noi baptistii nu ingenunchem, s-a oprit din slujba, si de acolo din altar, a racnit din nou, de aceasta data la mine acuzandu-ma ca nu ingenunchez la sfintele evanghelii.

Mi-a cerut sa ingenunchez. Nu am raspuns si am continuat sa raman in picioare. Din nou a racnit, de aceasta data cerandu-ne tuturor sa iesim afara . Ne-am conformat si ne-am retras in pragul usii bisericii, ca sa asistam la tot ce se va intampla.

Pentru ca una din fiicele defunctei (care este si ea baptista) a refuzat sa ingenuncheze în acest fel, i-a cerut si ei sa iasa afara!!! Slujba de la biserica a durat o ora si jumatate! Repetand desigur cu aceeasi obsesie aceeasi formula pe care a rostit-o si acasa.

La sfarsitul slujbei, desi era tot la altar, iar moarta era pe nasalie, sub privirile uluite ale familiei si asistentei in general, s-a lansat intr-un atac virulent la adresa mea, a autoritatilor locale, a bisericii baptiste, a credinciosilor baptisti din Slobozia, proferand aceleasi acuze, ca am venit in comuna ca lupi rapitori,mituind primarul,etc.

Le-a promis enoriasilor lui ca atata timp cat el va fi preot in Slobozia, va lupta cu crucea impotriva pocaitilor,ca nimeni nu va fi inmormantat in cimitir decat potrivit cu ritul ortodox.

In incheierea asa zisei slujbe, a strigat: ” Dragi enoriasi ai comunei Slobozia, vreau sa stiti ca azi noapte la ora 1 am fost santajat de Guvernul Romaniei, dar cu toate astea peste mine nu va trece nimeni decat trenul.”

Etichete: baptist, Calinic, Cornel Pelease, inmormantare, ortodox, preot, Slobozia

Redăm în cele ce urmează zguduitoarea mărturie depusă de Richard Wurmbrand în faţa unei subcomisii din Senatul SUA despre persecuţia creştinilor în România comunistă. Textul a fost preluat integral de pe situl Christian Monitor.

Această mărturie a fost depusă la trei săptămâni de la emigrarea lui Richard Wurmbrand în SUA, în luna mai 1966. Se consideră că audierea lui în Senatul american a fost scânteia care a atras atenţia opiniei publice occidentale asupra atrocităţilor care aveau loc în spatele Cortinei de Fier şi a provocat o schimbare de atitudine a autorităţilor occidentale faţă de dictaturile comuniste din Europa de Răsărit, precum şi iniţierea unor măsuri de sprijin a celor care erau persecutaţi pentru credinţa lor religioasă.

TESTIMONY OF REV. RICHARD WURMBRAND

COMMUNIST EXPLOITATION OF RELIGION

Friday, May 6, 1966

On Christian Monitor
Originally on House Upon the Rock

U.S. Senate, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, of the Committee on the Judiciary,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:20 a.m., in room 18, Old Senate Office Building, Senator Thomas J. Dodd presiding. Also present: Jay G. Sourwine, chief counsel; Benjamin Mandel, director of research; Frank W. Schroeder, chief investigator; and Robert C. McManus, investigations analyst.

 

Senator Dodd. I will call this hearing to order. We have as our witness today Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who is a refugee from Rumania. Mr. Sourwine will introduce and read a copy of Dr. Wurmbrand’s credentials.

I must say, before you do so, that we are grateful for your appearing here. I am familiar with the nature of your testimony. -I think I am to an extent. I feel that you are rendering a real service to the cause of the free world.

Go ahead, Mr. Sourwine.

Mr. Sourwine. Mr. Chairman, this letter of credentials, which I shall read pursuant to your instructions, was given to Dr. Wurmbrand by Dr. Hedenquist, who is the mission director of the Svenska Israels-missionen. The reason is explained the text. It reads:

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand is a refugee from Rumania, a country which he had to leave because of the anti religious persecution. Fleeing from there, he has not the usual credentials, which have been taken from him at his arrest by the secret police of the Communists. Our mission, knowing him since 26 years, certify hereby that he is an Evangelical Minister who has had until now the following functions:

From April 1939, to January 1940, he was secretary of the church’s mission to the Jews which had to retire from Rumania at the last date because of the war. 
During the whole war he has been pastor of our mission in Rumania. Since our mission retired from Rumania in 1945, from that year to 1948 he has been a pastor of the Norwegian mission to the Jews. 
In the same time he has worked also in the representation of the World Council of Churches for Rumania. 
He was also a professor of the Old Testament in the Seminary of Bucharest. From 1948 to 1956, he was in prison for religious motives. Released in 1956, he was no more authorized by the Communist authorities to fulfill his duties. From 1956 to 1959 he preached and exercised his other pastoral functions illegally. 
Re-arrested for this in 1959, he was again in prison until July 1964, when he was released on the basis of a general amnesty. 
Since 1964, he was pastor of the Evangelical Church in Orshova, a Rumanian town. 
Continuing to be the object of persecution and being in great danger, our Scandinavian mission to the Jews succeeded to make him escape from three. 
We recommend him as a most reliable person, a fine Christian who has published several books against atheism and communism and who has got a burning heart for Christ and for all people in need. 
 

This is signed by Dr. Hedenquist, doctor of theology, mission director in Sweden for Svenska Israelsmissionen. 
 

Reverend Wurmbrand. He is the former secretary of the World Council of Missions.

Senator Dodd. Without objection, this letter will be included in the record. Since it has been read, it will not be reprinted.

Mr. Sourwine, you may proceed. I have some questions which I might as well ask to begin with, rather than wait until later.

Pastor, how many languages do you speak?

Reverend Wurmbrand. There are legends about me that I speak very many languages. Something like 14.

Senator Dodd. Forty?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Fourteen.

Senator Dodd. Obviously, you speak English. 
 

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; English, French, German Hungarian, and so on.

Senator Dodd. Did you come directly from Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No, no; from Rumania I went to Italy; from Italy to Oslo, and then from Europe I came to the States.

Senator Dodd. From where?

Reverend Wurmbrand. From Paris.

Senator Dodd. When was that?

Reverend Wurmbrand. I came to the States 3 weeks ago.

Senator Dodd. Were you required by the secret police to make any commitments before you could leave Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Before I left Rumania I was called twice to the secret police. The first time they said that they don’t know yet if they will allow me to leave the country with my family. They said: “Dollars have been received for you. You will have to leave the country, but perhaps we will let some time to pass, because your remembrances of prison are too fresh and you have too good a pen.” 
 

Senator Dodd. What?

Reverend Wurmbrand. A pen. “You can too well write. Perhaps we will keep somebody here of your family as hostage.” The second time they called me again and they said: “Now you will leave the country, but be very cautious when you come out. You may preach Christ as much as you like. We know that you are a preacher, but don’t touch us. Don’t speak against Communists. I f you will speak against communism, for $1,000 we can find a gangster who will liquidate you. We play with you with open cards. You come from prison You have met in prison men whom we have brought back from the West.”

And that is the truth. I have been in prison with a Rumanian Orthodox priest, Vasile Leul, who has been kidnaped from Austria. I have seen his nail torn out and broken, and so they reminded me of that. “You know how our prisons are and that you can come back in prison.”

And the third thing which they said: “We have also another possibility with you. We can destroy you morally outside. We will find story with a girl or a money story or something else and people will be stupid enough to believe it. We will destroy you if you touch us.”

And under these conditions I was allowed to come out. And very sorrowfully in the West I found people in the West, even religious leaders, who told me the same thing: “Preach Christ as much as you like but don’t touch Communists.”

Senator Dodd. As I understand it, you said you came to this country 3 weeks ago.

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes, sir; just today it is 1 month.

Senator Dodd. Three weeks?

Reverend Wurmbrand. One month today.

Senator Dodd. Were you in prison from 1948 to 1956?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes, and then imprisoned again in January 1959 to 1964.

Senator Dodd. Were you in the same prison all of that time?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No, no; we were transferred from one prison to the others.

Senator Dodd. From 1956 to 1959 as I understand it, you exercised your religious function in spite of the law against such activity, did you not?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes, yes.

Senator Dodd. How did you do this?

Reverend Wurmbrand. When I cam out from prison in 1956, I was licensed to preach – of course, nobody can preach in our country accept he has a license from the Government – and in the beginning I got a license, but which was withdrawn from me after the first week of preaching.

The motives are so comical you would say. In a sermon I said that Christians must keep hope, because of the wheel of history turns, and the wheel of life.

“You meant us, that communism will change, that communism will fall. Never will it fall.” It has been reproached to me that in a sermon I have said Christians must practice patience, patience, and again patience. “Ah, you meant that the Americans will come and we must be patient until they come.”

Everything was misinterpreted, and so the license has been withdrawn from me. And then generally in the Soviet countries there exists the underground church which works as the first Christians worked. Only now we understand texts of the bible which we had not understood before. I did not know why it is written in the Bible that a man named Simon was called Peter. Simeon was called Niger and so on. Everyone is called otherwise than his mother called him. So it is with us now. In every village I was called by another name. I was called Valentin, Georgescu, Ruben, In every village I had another name, and so I could preach.

I did not understand in earlier times why Jesus, when He wishes to have the last supper said: “Go in town and you will see a man with a pitcher and go after him and where he enters prepare the supper.”

Why does he not give an address, a number, and a street? Now we know it when we make secret prayer meetings. We never give the address. We don’t know if that man is not the informer of the secret police. We tell to the main to wait in a public garden or somewhere, and when one with a flower here, or with a necktie passes, go after him. We don’t introduce ourselves to each other, and if somebody asks the name of the other one, we know that he is the informer of the secret police. And so we have developed a technique of secret church work and so I could work.

Senator Dodd. How did you keep alive.? How did you sustain yourself?

Reverend Wurmbrand. The Christians sustained me everywhere. I had no salary, I had no regular salary but the Christians everywhere sustained me. In Rumania the first question asked of a pastor or a priest of any denomination, is: Has he been in prison? If he has been in prison he is all right. All the Christians sustain him. 
 

Senator Dodd. You were re-arrested in 1959, as I understand it.

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes.

Senator Dodd. Were you kept in the same prison until your release in 1964?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No. Then, also, I was in several prisons. 
 

Senator Dodd. Could you describe for us the cell in which you were kept in solitary confinement?

Reverend Wurmbrand. There were different cells. In solitary confinement I was the first 2 , nearly 3 years. It was in the most beautiful building of Bucharest in the building of the Secretariat of State for Internal Affairs. It is a building before which all foreigners stand and admire it. I can tell you that your White House is a very little building in comparison with ours. And there beneath the earth 10 meters beneath the earth are the cells. There are no windows in the cells. Air enters through a tube. And there were a few desks with a mattress, with a straw mattress. You had but three steps for to walk. Never were we taken out from these cells except for interrogations when prisoners were beaten and tortured.

For years I have never seen sun, moon, flowers, snow, stars, no man except the interrogator who beat, but I can say I have seen heaven open, I have seen Jesus Christ, I have seen the angles and we were very happy there.

But the treatment was very bad. The purpose was to make us mad. You didn’t hear a noise. A whisper you didn’t hear in this cell. The guard had felt shoes. For years, not to hear anything. In all these years of prison we never had a book, we never had a but of paper, we never had a newspaper, nothing to distract our mind except that from time to time tape recorders were put on the corridor. I didn’t know what a tape recorder is. I had not seen such a thing. But at once we heard beautiful Rumanian music, and then we enjoyed it. We didn’t know what has happened with the Communists that they make us enjoy, and after 10 or 15 minutes at once you heard, “Ha, ha, ha don’t beat,” the torturing of a woman. This lasted for half an hour the torturing of a woman. And of 100 prisoners who had been in that cell, in that corridor, everybody recognized that it is his wife or that it is his girl. I myself thought also that it is my wife.

Never will a Westerner understand, if I would not have the mark on my body, which are my credentials.

Senator Dodd. Excuse me, never will who understand?

Reverend Wurmbrand. A Westerner can’t understand.

Senator Dodd. A Westerner?

Reverend Wurmbrand. A Westerner can’t understand God is here and knows that I will not tell you the whole truth because if I will tell you the whole truth, you will faint and rush out of this room, not bearing to hear what things have happened. But I will tell you that in a prison they crucified a cat before ourselves. They beat nails in the feet of the cat and the cat was hanging with the head down, and can you imagine how this cat screamed and the prisoners, mad, bead on the door, “Free the cat, free the cat, free the cat,” and the Communists very polite, “Oh, surely we will free the cat, but give the statements which we ask from you and then the cat will be freed,” and I have known men who have given statements against their wives, against their children, against their parents to free the cat. They did it out of madness, and then the parents and the wives have been tortured like the cat. Such things have happened with us.

Senator Dodd. Did you have any fellow Christians like you imprisoned?

Reverend Wurmbrand. We had hundreds of bishops, priests, monks in prisons; my wife who is near me, she has been with Catholic nuns. My wife tells that they were angels; such have been put in prisons. Nearly all Catholic bishops died in prison. Innumerable Orthodox and Protestants have been in prison, too.

Senator Dodd. The point I was getting at and I guess I did not make it clear  where the Christians treated any differently or mistreated any differently?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Everybody in prison was very badly treated. And I cannot be contradicted on this question, because I have been with physicians, I have much more broken bones than anybody, so either I broke my bones or somebody else broke them. And if I would not have been a clergyman but a murderer – it is a crime to torture a murderer, too. The Christian prisoners were tortured in a form which should mock their religion. I tell you again in the prison of Pitesti one scene I will describe you about torturing and mocking Christians, and believe me I would renounce to eternal life to paradise after which I long, if I tell you one word of exaggeration. God is here and knows that I do not say everything. It cannot be said. There are ladies here. There are other people hearing it.

One Sunday morning in the prison of Pitesti a young Christian was already the fourth day, day and night, tied to the cross. Twice a day the cross was put on the floor and 100 other cell inmates by beating, by tortures, were obliged to fulfill their necessities upon his face and upon his body. Then the cross was erected again and the Communists swearing and mocking “Look your Christ, look your Christ, how beautiful he is, adore him, kneel before him, how fine he smells, your Christ.” And then the Sunday morning came and a Catholic priest, an acquaintance of mine, has been put to the belt, in the dirt of a cell with 100 prisoners, a plate with excrements, and one with urine was given to him and he was obliged to say the holy mass upon these elements, and he did it. And I asked him afterward, “Father, but how could you make this?” He was half mad. He answered to me: “Brother, I have suffered more than Christ. Don’t reproach to me what I have done.” And the other prisoners beaten to take holy communion in this form, and the Communists around, “Look, your sacraments, look, your church, what a holy church you have, what fine is your church, what holy ordinance God has given you.”

I am very insignificant and a very little man. I have been in prison among the weak ones and the little ones, but I speak for a suffering country and for a suffering church and for the heroes and the saints of the 20th century; we have had such saints in our prison to which I did not dare to lift my eyes.

I am a Protestant, but we have had near us Catholic bishops and monks and nuns about whom we felt that the touching of their garments heals. We were not worthy to untie their shoelaces. Such men have been mocked and tortured in our country. And even if it would mean to go back to a Rumanian prison, to be kidnaped by the Communists and going back and tortured again, I cannot be quiet. I owe it to those who have suffered there.

Senator Dodd. Now, did the Rumanian secret police employ brainwashing techniques?

Reverend Wurmbrand. The worst thing has been the brainwashing. All the tortures of times before were nothing in comparison with brainwashing.

To describe very shortly brainwashing: First of all we were doped. The dope was put in our food. I did not know about this dope. But we saw only the results, a dope which gave two results. First of all, what the physician calls alleluia which means lack of power of will. The power of will was completely broken. If we were told, “Lift your hand,” I lifted it. If I was not told to let the hand down, I would never have left it down. We were at the same time very much undernourished. We had times when we received 100 grams, one slice of bread, a week. It was told to us, “We give you as many calories as you need to be able to breathe only,” and so our power of will has been broken.

Second, this drug or perhaps it is another drug, produces the delirium of self accusation. I have seen prisoners knocking during the night on the door and saying, “Take me to the interrogator, I have new things to say against me.” Prisoners quarreled with their interrogators to say against themselves more than the interrogators asked from them. And then we have had in prisons the curious phenomenon that we as priests received confessions from other prisoners. Now everybody is a sinner, but not everybody is a criminal. Men who have never murdered confessed that they have murdered, that they have committed adultery, that they have stolen. They felt they had to accuse themselves. This has also been the result of doping. And after we were doped like that – that is the secret of all the Soviet show trials, in which the prisoners accuse themselves – then the time of brainwashing came. For 17 hours a day from 5 in the morning to 10 in the evening we had to sit like this. We were not allowed to lean. We were not allowed to rest a little bit our weary heads upon our hands. To close your eyes was a crime. Seventeen hours a day we had to sit like that and hear from the morning to the evening: “Communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, communism is good,” until you heard one who was already 20 years in prison under the Communists shouting, “Communism is good, communism is good, communism is good, I give my life for communism.”

It was after the technique of Professor Pavlov, a scientific suggestion.

In prison there were not only priests and pastors. We have had hundreds of peasants and young boys and girls who were put in prison for their Christian faith. These were separated and for them there was a special brainwashing, not only that “communism is good,” but “Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead, Christianity is dead. Nobody more believes in Christ, nobody more believes in Christ, you are the only fools.”

And so on. And I must tell you that you may know how far this brainwashing went. I do not like to pose here like a hero. I believed that Christianity is dead under this influence. I believed -

Senator Dodd I did not hear that.

Reverend Wurmbrand. I believed that Christianity is dead under this suggestion. Nobody goes more to church. They gave us post cards. I have not seen my wife for 10 years. They gave me post cards, they gave to all of us post cards: “Write to your children and wife; they may come and on that day see you and bring your parcels,” so on that day we were shaved; we expected and expected until the evening and nobody came. They had not sent the post cards, but we did not know. Then came the brain washings. “Your wives are laying in bed with men,” obscene words, “Your children hate you. You have nobody to love in the world. You are the only fools. Give up faith. Nobody is more Christians. Christianity is dead.”

I believed also that nobody is more a Christian. I had read in the Bible that there will be in the last time the great apostasy, that people will leave the faith and I believed that I lived now this time. But I said to myself if Christianity is dead, I will sit at its tomb and will weep until it arises again, just as Mary Magdalene sat at the tomb of Jesus and wept until Jesus showed Himself. Then when I came out of prison I saw Christianity is not dead. The number of practicing Christians in Rumania according to the figures given by the Communists themselves in 20 years of Communist dictatorship has grown 300 percent.

Senator Dodd. How do the Communists use religion for their own purposes if they do?

Reverend Wurmbrand. That is a very tragic side. The worse thing in Rumania has not been the persecution of Christians. The persecution has make the Christians to be of steel. The worst thing has been the corruption of religion. They have put as religious leaders their man. A bishop, a pastor, a preacher, just a man like other man and can commit sins. Now if they found a preacher or somebody else in adultery or in some money irregularity or I do not know what sin, they called him and blackmailed him and said, “Now you must become our man. Otherwise we publish what we have found.” Or they found others who were weak ones, whom they promised I do not know what. They never keep their promises. And these men, they put at the leadership of religion everywhere.

They have their bishops, their bishop vicar, their professors of theology, their presidents of the Baptists and Pentecostals and so on. I could give names. I know this from firsthand. Because many of these, when we came out of prison, out of remorse confessed to us what they have done. And now they use these men. With us in Rumania religion is a very great thing. You do not find much religious difference in Rumania. By these weak Christians, the Communists used religion for their propaganda. When the Communists came to power in Rumania, they convoked in the building of our parliament a congress of all the cults. There were 4,000 priests; pastors, rabbis of all religions were there. Our Prime Minister Gorza, said the same things which you hear now in the West. This was in 1945 when they came to power with us. “You know Rumanian communism will not be like Russian communism. We are a democratic communism. We will not persecute the church. We are on the side of monarchy. We will never collectivate agriculture. We are something entirely else and you should be on our side and then we will protect religion and we will give salaries to the priests.”

And the priests, good men, simply believed him and cheered him. Priests and bishops one after the other stood up and said, “Well, if your communism is otherwise than the Russian communism, if it will be a good communism, we do not object against communism in principle.” And one after the other stood up and praised this form of communism. There was only one in that congress who protested and said that communism can never change, that terror is an essential part of communism, because communism is contrary to human nature.

What would you say if I would take the purse out of your pocket? Everyone wishes to have something. A dog wishes to have a bone, and communism is against human nature because it does not allow you to have anything of yours and so communism must use terror. At that congress there was only one who said these things. This one is now before you.

But what has happened? I went to prison, this was one of the charges against me. I met in prison all those who had praised communism, all those who have collaborated with communism, and they were treated just like me. They had been the fools. There was only one difference that I was in prison with a good conscience and they were with a bad conscience. In prison they had remorse. Religion was used for Communist propaganda in our country.

Just to give you one example: To the Orthodox Church of Rumania foreigners come and see the liturgy and see everything so beautiful. The church is open. They do not understand the language, they do not know what is preached. I will give you the test of the sermon. It was a sermon about an epistle of St. Paul where it was written that Chris is our peace , and so the priest explained, “Christ is our peace. Who is against peace? American imperialists. And who is on the side of the peace? We, the Socialist countries.”

So you see that Christ identifies Himself with socialism and so on. Such sermons they have. They have used the religion for their own purposes in the country. Then they have used the religion for getting political positions in the West. They are not fools to send in the West representatives of the Communist Party. They send bishops with great beards and beards are always very impressive here in the West, and through these beards they influence the West.

Senator Dodd. I have many more questions, but would you show your wounds and scars, if you have some?

Reverend Wurmbrand. I apologize here before the ladies.

Senator Dodd. Take your time. If ever a man was entitled to time, I think you are.

Reverend Wurmbrand. Look here, look here, look here. Look here, look here. And so the whole body.

Senator Dodd. What is the scar behind your ear?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Here they put the knife and said, “Give accusatory statement against your bishops and against the other pastors. Do you give or not? And they cut. It is true that they did not cut very deeply.

Senator Dodd. These are all knife wounds?

Reverend Wurmbrand. They tortured by all means. They beat until they broke the bones. They used red-hot irons, they used knives, they used everything. And what was the first thing is not that they beat, not what they did, but how they did it. They interrogated you very politely, and if you did not wish to say what they asked they said, “Well, we have the first. On the 15th you will be beaten and tortured at 10 o’clock in the evening.” 
Imagine what 14 days were after this. We have had prisoners who during this time, which has been given to them, knocked at the door, “I can’t bear it. I will say everything,” before they have been tortured.

Senator Dodd. I wish you would turn around before you put your shirt on.

Reverend Wurmbrand. And that it may be very clear, it is not that I boast with these marks. I show to you the tortured body of my country, of my fatherland, and of my church, and they appeal to the American Christians and to all freemen of America to think about our tortured body, and we do not ask you to help us. We ask you only one thing. Do not help our oppressors and do not praise them. You cannot be a Christian and praise the inquisitors of Christians. That is what I have to say.

Senator Dodd. All right. You may put on your clothes. That scar on your right breast, do you remember how that was inflicted?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; by knife.

Senator Dodd. By knife?

Reverend Wurmbrand. By knife. I have been in Oslo. I went to a hospital. There were several physicians. I can give their names. I spoke with them about religion. In the beginning they said, “We are atheists,” and then they saw my body and I asked them what treatment do I need. They said: “About treatment, do not ask us. Ask only the one in whom we don’t believe, but who has kept you alive, because according to our medical books, you are dead. A man who has what you have, with four vertebras broken, cannot live. According to our medical books, you are dead. If you are alive, then the one in whom we don’t believe has kept you alive.”

Senator Dodd. I think it is important for our purposes to understand this completely. As I take it, they cut you, but they must have been asking you questions.

Reverend Wurmbrand. Surely, surely. I had worked in the representation of the World Council of Churches in Rumania, and after the war this World Council of Churches made a great relief work and I myself had relationship with the Rumanian patriarchs and with the bishops and with the Baptists and with the Pentecostals and Lutherans and so on, and we worked with all these. And now they wish to make with us in Rumania a great show process, a great show trial as they have made in Hungary with Cardinal Mindszenty and so on, and they wished from me accusatory statements against all these with whom I have had connections, and because I did not wish to give these accusatory statements, I and others have been tortured. This has been the usual thing. Nobody enters in the Rumanian secret police without being beaten, without being tortured. I have been not the worst tortured. The proof is that I am alive. So many died. Nearly all our Catholic bishops have been so handled that they have died, and in that time the Russians were in our country, they decided that the Catholic bishops should be killed. One of the members of the Government has been Gromyko, one of the murderers of Christians. Perhaps you will understand why I call his name.

Senator Dodd. Yes; I do.

Reverend Wurmbrand. I have seen Catholic priests, heroes, dying not only for Christ and confessing Christ to the end, but dying for the Pope.

I have heard the word of a Catholic priest, I will not tell his name. He was asked, “Do you still believe in the Pope?” and he said, “Since St. Peter there has always been a Pope, and until Christ will come again there will always be a Pope. And the actual Pope, Pius the 12th has not made peace with you and never will a Pope shake hands with you.” He was trampled under the feet and tortured to death. Under our eyes he was killed. At that time a member of the government who killed this Catholic priest has been Gromyko, and the priest died with the hope that never will a Pope shake hands with his murderers.

Senator Dodd. You saw and heard this yourself.

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes, surely; and it is not only one case. I could never finish if I would tell you what I have seen. I must just pour out before you my heart. I speak for a country and I speak for a church. We are very, very sad there about all these compromises. I must tell you I have been in England before I came to the States, and I have spoken with high Christian officials from England. The Archbishop of Canterbury and many canons and so on have been in our country recently, last year. So I asked Christian leaders – I will not tell names – “Why have you sat at banquets with our inquisitors? I am a little pastor, I cannot interrogate you, but I speak for the others who cannot speak for themselves. “Why have you sat at banquets with our inquisitors?”

I was answered, “We are Christians and must have friendship and fellowship with everybody, with the Communists, too. Don’t you agree?”

I said, “I can’t polemicize with you. I have not read the Bible for 14 years. You must know Christianity better than I. Faintly I remember in the Bible it is written that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. But supposing you must have friendship and fellowship with everybody. How is it that you have had friendship and fellowship only with our inquisitors, and with us never?”

Never have these great men of the West been in the houses of Christian martyrs. I have an only son and I love him. I cannot look to him. He looks like a skeleton. He has hungered. He will never be healthy. And so many of our children died. All these great relates from the West are great men. I am very little in comparison with them. But I always asked myself, “Well, all right, make friendship with the Communists. But only with the Communists?” They never inquired about us.

I asked them, “Why did you go to see the Pope, who is all right, who does not need your visit?” “When you have been in Rumania why have you not visited the tombs of the Catholic bishops killed in tortures? Why have you not shed there a tear? Why have you not put there a flower? That is what we expected. Why have you not left 10 pounds? Ten pounds would have been the salvation of a Catholic family there. You go to see the Pope. The Pope is all right. He has to eat and to drink.” But I must say we are very sad there about these compromises with communism. We do not understand. I am a man who does not understand politics. I have not read newspapers for 14 years.

It may be right for a state to have peaceful existence with communism. I do not know. That is a question for Johnson and Goldwater to decide. But the church can never have peaceful coexistence with atheism. Everybody would laugh if I would say that health can peacefully exist with the microbe of tuberculosis, that the FBI can coexist peacefully with gangsters, that the church can peacefully exist with drunkenness, but communism and atheism is much worse than drug addiction and drunkenness. You drink a little wine and the next day it passes, but communism poisons youth and our children since 50 years. How can there be peaceful existence with this on the side of churchmen and the church leadership I cannot understand. 
 

I must say I have been very sad. I have read in your periodicals that, I do not know why, church bodies here ask the admission of Red China in the organization of allied nations. It may be right. I do not know politics. I do not know what this organization of allied nations is, but I ask myself, “You, a church periodical, why don’t you write about the tortures inflicted to Chinese Christians by the communists? That is your business and leave the business of politics to the Senate and like this.”

I express here the grief and the great pain of a suffering country and of a suffering church, and I apologize if I am a little unpolite.

Senator Dodd. You were the representative of the World Council of Christian Churches?

Reverend Wurmbrand. I was one of the workers of the office of the World Council of Churches. This man who give me a certificate, this Pastor Hedenquist, was at that time one of the leaders of the Council of Churches who came to Rumania.

Mr. Sourwine. You were responding to the chairman’s question about what had been asked of you under interrogation. Did you complete that answer?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Well, it is a very interesting thing. Jesus says that the children of this world are wiser than the children of light. You are a political body. You interrogate me about what I have been asked about the World Council of Churches. The World Council of Churches never put to me this question.

Senator Dodd. Never what?

Reverend Wurmbrand. They have never put to me the question, “You have been arrested. One of the main subjects of your interrogation was that you represented us in Rumania. Please tell us what you have been interrogated about?”

I was never asked by them. The secret police wished to know everybody with whom they worked and with whom we had connections and so on. One of the great purposes of their interrogation was to know how they could win the World Council of Churches for their position.

Mr. Sourwine. How they could win?

Reverend Wurmbrand. The Council of Churches to defend their position.

Mr. Sourwine. How did you answer that one?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Well, I hoped – I must say that I was mistaken in the answers which I gave – I hoped that the World Council of Churches will never be won to their position.

Senator Dodd. Will never be what?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Won for their position.

Senator Dodd. Work for their position?

Reverend Wurmbrand. That they will never, so I had hoped. And now when I cam out I read last month there was sitting of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, in which they took the following decision, a very nice decision: “We ask both parts to keep peace.”

But in the East nobody published this decision of theirs. Nobody in the East has the slightest ideas of this decision. So this disarms only the West. Such decisions are taken. They look very fine. The purpose has been accomplished.

Mr. Sourwine. You mentioned questions about the World Council of Churches. Was there more than one, or was there just the single question of how they could win it for their purposes?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No; there were also other questions; what relief they sent and to whom they gave this relief and what was the political purpose of this relief, and so on. They considered then the World Council of Churches – that was in 1948 – they considered the World Council of Churches as an American spy organization. They do not consider it any more like that.

Mr. Sourwine. You were being questioned by the Rumanian secret police, were you not?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes.

Mr. Sourwine. When you say they wanted to know how they could win the World Council of Churches for their purposes, did you mean for the purposes of Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No, no, no; for the purposes of communism, for the purposes of the whole Communist world.

Mr. Sourwine. In other words, the Rumanian secret police are, in your opinion at least, just like any other communist secret police?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Sure, there is no difference at all, and our interrogations, if they were important ones as mine, they went to Moscow. I know it from the Orthodox priest, Vasile Leon, who has been kidnaped from Austria and he has been brought to Moscow. In Moscow he has been interrogated about me. In Moscow they knew everything about Rumania. They worked hand in hand. At that time the secret Rumanian police had Soviet advisers.

Mr. Sourwine. I think you have touched on this, but can you perhaps give us a little more on the subject? What has been the policy and practice of the communists with respect to religion in countries where they have come into power?

Reverend Wurmbrand. They used three great instruments. First of all, the persecution, to make everybody afraid. They never accepted that they have put anybody in prison for religious motives. They found always political motives. Now I will give you the political motives.

A Unitarian pastor, a friend of mine, has been put in prison and sentenced to 7 years under the charge that on a Christmas Eve he has said that Jesus being a baby Herod wished to kill him but his holy mother fled with him to Egypt. That was the charge. “Aha, you meant us under Herod, and you hope Nasser will be on the side of the imperialists and therefore you mentioned Egypt.”

Another friend of mine, a pastor, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was one of the greatest saints whom I have ever seen in life. The charge against him was he preached on a Sunday morning in a village about John 21 where it is said that the Lord walked on the seashore and he saw the apostles and asked them, “Have you something to eat?” They said, “We have not,” and then Jesus said, “Throw your nets on the right side.”

So the pastor preached from the pulpit. He asked, “Have you something to eat?” And when he asked, “Have you something to eat?” Everybody began to weep, because with us, peasants have nothing to eat. After the collectivization of agriculture our peasants have nothing to eat. Peasant children do not see milk and fruit. Everything goes to the collective and from the collective perhaps to Vietnam. Nobody knows where it goes. Our population does not see. They began to weep because they had nothing to eat and then the pastor, not knowing in what world he is, said, “Dear children, you have nothing to eat because you throw your nets on the left side. You must throw them on the right side.” He meant the side of the clemency and of the goodness of God.

The next day there was the secret police, “Aha, you have said not to go to the left-wing with the communists but with the right side, the imperialists.”

The man got 15 years of prison.

So there has been, first of all, this method of persecution. There has been, secondly, the method of corruption. We live in the times of the abomination of the desolation of the holy places. There have always been bad Popes and good Popes and bad priests and good priests. For the first time in church history the leadership of churches is dominated by the central committee of an avowed atheistic power. The central committee of the party decides who must be patriarch, who must be Baptist preacher, Pentecostal preacher, and so on. Everywhere they have found weak men or women with some sin. Those they have put in the leadership of churches and so you could hear in our theological seminary in Bucharest the theology that God has given three revelations – once through Moses, second through Jesus, the third through Karl Marx, and so on.

Religion is corrupted from within. Religion has been widely used and is still as the tools of communist politics. The priests everywhere had to propagate the collectivization of agriculture and everywhere when communists have something important to do, knowing the influence of religion, priests and pastors are put to preach these things.

Mr. Sourwine. Have the communists shown themselves to be opposed only to Christianity, or to all religions?

Reverend Wurmbrand. To all the religions. The Jewish religion has been persecuted just as the Christian religion. In the prison of Gherla we had a whole room with rabbis who were in prisons. We had in prison the Moslem priests and so on.

Mr. Sourwine. Did they segregate the rabbis in one room –

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes.

Mr. Sourwine. The Christians in another, and –

Reverend Wurmbrand. No, no, they were at a time kept with us, but the rabbis, because they had to respect certain dietary laws and the Sabbath and so on, they separated them in order not to provoke collision with other prisoners.

Mr. Sourwine. Did the prison authorities permit the Jews to follow their dietary requirements?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes.

Mr. Sourwine. To practice their religion? 
 

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; under one form. They could follow the dietary rules, not eating everything which has been given to them. That is all. They did not give them any special food.

Senator Dodd. Were the rabbis subjected to the same kind of torture that you suffered?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; sure, sure. There was no difference in this. I must say it may look anecdote for you. I had a discussion once with the commandant of the prison of Targulacna, and he said, “We are not like the Fascists who made the racial differences and persecuted the Jews and Hungarians. We are not so. Look around you. We keep in prison Rumanians, Hungarians, and Jews all alike. We don’t make racial differences.”

Mr. Sourwine. That could be interpreted to mean that he was saying people of the Jewish faith were being persecuted for their religious activity, but not for their race.

Is it true that there is no anti-Semitism in Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. There is anti-Semitism. Just before we left the country, everywhere where Jews were in high positions as chief engineers or directors in ministry and so on, they were silenced and put to lower functions.

Mr. Sourwine. Would you expand on that?

Senator Dodd. Just repeat it.

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes, yes. Just before we left Rumania a few weeks before we left Rumania, all kinds of Jews who were chief engineer or directors or something great in different institutions have been put to lower positions just because they were Jews.

Senator Dodd. To lower positions?

Reverend Wurmbrand. To lower positions.

Mr. Sourwine. Not because of religion?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No, no.

Mr. Sourwine. Just as a matter of racial prejudice?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Sure. They could have been atheists They were even members of the Communist Party, but if they were of Jewish origin, they were put to lower positions. From the secret police all the Jews have been driven out.

Mr. Sourwine. Are there any Buddhists in Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Buddhists? No; we have none. Perhaps a few intellectuals, just a few.

Mr. Sourwine. Have the communists done anything, to your knowledge, to try to win position and influence for communist agents in the religious community of the free world?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Sure. We had a professor, Justin Moisescu.

Mr. Sourwine. Moisescu?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Moisescu, yes. He was a professor. He had never been a priest. Truly a very clever and a very cultured man. He was professor of church history, but a layman. With us there has been a law that you can’t be professor in a theological institute unless you are a priest. So he resigned. He didn’t wish to be a priest.

And the, what discussions he had with the secret police he knows, he was known in the whole country as a whoremonger, as a drunkard, nobody appreciated him. At once we heard that in a few weeks he had become priest, bishop, metropolitan of Yasi. That is the highest function with us after the patriarch.

Mr. Sourwine. That is the Rumanian Orthodox Church?

Reverend Wurmbrand. In the Rumanian Orthodox Church. Whatever will be the consequences for me, I have told you how I have been threatened, and these threatenings are not simple words.

Recently from Italy two Rumanians have been kidnaped. We have their names. An I know what can happen to me. But I will tell you this Justin Moisescu personally has denounced a group of 400 Christian peasants from his own bishopric. I have been imprisoned with them. He has denounced the priests whom he ordained when he knew that they said some counterrevolutionary word.

He has a very impressive beard and he has come out to the free world and was accepted as a bishop, and those in the West believe that they speak with the Orthodox Church of Rumania and they speak with the secret police of Rumania. And now the interesting thing is I would not mind accepting men like him and like Gromatca, this arch traitor and others. I don’t mind that they are accepted in the West. But I ask myself in every bargain, in every business, both parts must win. I give you the product but you must give me the dollars for it. We accept your traitors. What does the East accept from us? If we had posed to Rumania this question, “We will accept Justin Moisescu, you must accept a Bible society in Rumania,” we would have it. But we accept without asking for it. Justin Moisescu is a member of the secret police. They sent to America the priest Liviu Stan. Everybody knows Liviu Stan is a man of the communists. When the communists came to power he was among the first ones who put posters on our walls that Christians must vote and go with the Communists. These posters were signed and the others by this Liviu Stan. The communists in Rumania are not so stupid to send here a man who will say. “I come from the side of the communist party” Liviu Stan came as a representative of the Orthodox Church of Rumania. And so they have many men. They have sent recently a priest, Ananaia.

Now that is a very interesting thing about this priest, Ananaia. This priest, Ananaia, has been with me in prison. He has been 10 year in prison. He has been beaten. He has passed through brainwashing. And they have such a confidence in brainwashing that they had the confidence to send him to the West and he does their work.

Senator Dodd. He is a priest in good standing, and of what church?

Reverend Wurmbrand. In the Orthodox church.

I speak out of the pain of a heart. I can’t polemicize. I am a very little pastor. I can’t polemicize with great religious bodies, but I am a man who has read nothing for 14 years. And now I came out to the West. I had always been very interested in missions and I wished to know what happens in missions. I took in hand the International Review of Missions, edited by the World Council of Churches, and I read there in the issue of January that in Rumania, orthodoxism and protestantism grow in an atmosphere of full religious liberty.

If the man who wrote this has not taken thousands of dollars from the Rumanian secret police, he deserve to be hanged for stupidity. He could have taken money for this. I believe he has not taken money. And then I wrote to them a letter, and said, “Either you lie or I lie. If I lie, I promise that never more will I be a pastor. If you lie you have to withdraw.” Now to see if I lie or you lie I ask you to answer the following 20 questions, if you say there is full religious liberty in Rumania.

“Where is the office of the World Council of Churches of Religion in Rumania? It has offices everywhere. In the communist countries it has none.

“Where is the Bible Society? We have no Bible Society. Show me one Bible printed in 20 years. We have no such thing. Tell me the name of one Christian who for 20 years could publish a book. Give me the name of one Christian professor of humanistic sciences in our country. Tell me on Sunday school in Bucharest where it can be attended.

“Tell me where is the YMCA in Rumania. Where are the pastors Ghelbegeanu, Vacareanu, and so on?” They are in prison.

“Please answer to me these questions. If you have received answers, I have received answers.”

There is no possible answers. It is not right for Christians to mock our sufferings. The communists have mocked us enough. Don’t praise our inquisitors. That is the only thing which we ask.

I apologize before these great Christians bodies. I am really a very little man but I speak for the great saints who suffer in prison. It is not right to praise our inquisitors or to think that now they have become better. 
 

Mr. Sourwine. Are the restrictive measures imposed upon the exercise of religion in Rumania today as stringent as they were 10 or 15 years ago?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No; they are no more stringent and I will explain to you why. I have been in a very poor family, a family with five children. Generally our men are very poor with us, unbelievably poor.

My salary when I left Rumania was $28. You say it is little, $28 a week. It was $28 a month. My son was not allowed to finish his studies because of my condemnation. He worked as a building worker and had $30 a month. Our bishop has $70 a month. And now our population is very, very poor.

Senator Dodd. When you say dollars, you mean the equivalent?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; the equivalent of $70. Now I was in a very poor family with five little children, and I caressed a child and the mother said to me, “This child is so good, it doesn’t weep even when it is hungry.” It had given up weeping because the child knew it is useless to weep. You can’t get food. And so this child was not beaten, because it didn’t weep any more. The Rumanian people does not weep any more. And, therefore, it must not be beaten any more.

The Rumanian people, as well as the other peoples behind the Iron Curtain, are desperate. They have abandoned hope that they will ever be released. For years we have heard a broadcast station: “Rebel against communism, rebel against communism,” and when we rebelled we were abandoned. 
And we see how our oppressors are helped. I will tell you a scene. Believe me, God is here. I tell you the scene just as it happened. It was in the years of brainwashing, the 14th year of prison. We are gathered to a meeting, and Major Alexandrescu, the commandant of the prison of Gherla, delivered us a speech and said:

You fools, you set for 15 or 20 years in prison and expected the Americans to come. You expected the Americans will come and release you. Now I will give you the news. The Americans come but not to release you. They come to help us, to help us, to make business with us, to make trade with us. You fools have not known. The Americans if you beg them, they give you nothing.. If you insult them, if you mock them, they give you money. We have been more clever than you.

These are words which I have heard myself. Such things have happened in our country.

Mr. Sourwine. Are there any open churches in Rumania today, which anyone may attend?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Just I didn’t finish this question. So there is a relaxation in what sense? Our people has given up the fight. Political underground movements don’t exist any more with us. They have no such. And so everything has quieted down in the country, and so they don’t need any more of the same terror. I have been for years in prison with thieves and murderers. Even before having been put in prison I have been chaplain of a prison. A thief after he has stolen is a gentleman. He give to the waiters the greatest tips and he invites girls and he invites you and he orders the best wines. He has not worked for his money. And such thieves are the communists. They have stolen half of Europe, they have stolen Russia, too. They have stolen a great part of Asia. And now they have what they have stolen and they are gentlemen and they expect the next occasion to steal again.

In this sense there is a relaxation with us, but it is not an essential one. We continue to have the avowed dictatorship of an atheistic party. We have one party. There can be no religious freedom where there is one party. We have elections. Now a joke is make with us that when God created Adam, He created only one woman, Eve, and He said to Adam, “You are free to choose for wife whomsoever you wish.” But there was only Eve. And so are the elections with us.

Our Government doesn’t mind old women coming to church, but our childhood, our youth is poisoned with atheism. We are not allowed to counteract, and what bitter fruits will come out of this seed nobody can know.

Now you have asked another question, do we have open churches in Rumania? If somebody comes to Rumania – it is another situation in Russia – if somebody comes to Rumania, he is really impressed.

The Orthodox liturgy is something very beautiful. It is grand. And if you come in Rumania you see thousands of churches open, liturgies, sermons, many people in the church. And I have spoken with Americans who have been there and have told me, “I was very impressed.” And now there is really a certain religious liberty. In Rumania you are allowed to say as much as you like that God is good. You are not allowed to say that the Devil is bad. St. John the Baptist could have saved his life if he had said: “Repent because the kingdom of heaven is near.” Nobody would have touched him. He was touched when he said, “You, Herod, are bad.”

If Christ would have delivered a thousand “Sermons on the Mount” they would not have crucified Him. They crucified Him when He said, “You vipers,” then He was crucified.

In Rumania you can say God is good but you can’t say “communism is cruel, they commit atrocities, it is a crime to poison children with atheism.” If you do this you go to prison. There are many priests, rabbis, and pastors who compromise and don’t put the dot on the “I.” There exists the real church and the real religion and that which compromises.

Mr. Sourwine. Are there churchmen in Rumania today who willingly cooperate with the communist authorities? 
 

Reverend Wurmbrand. Surely. The Orthodox hierarchy nearly entirely. Of the Catholic hierarchy, not one. The Catholic bishops died in prison, all except four. These four have house arrest. At the Vatican council no Catholic bishop was allowed to come. Came a Catholic priest, a well-known traitor, Augustine, who is the real leader of the Catholic Church; the leadership of the Baptists, for example is entirely in the hands of the communists.

I have here a document which I present to the Senate, a list of 150 Russian Baptist pastors recently deported to Siberia. Not all arrived in Siberia. Many died of tortures.

Senator Dodd. Can you talk a little more slowly? I could get your pronunciation better.

Reverend Wurmbrand. This is a list of 150 Baptist pastors of Russia who have been recently deported to Siberia. I have the names , the addresses, the names of their wives, of their children. They have not all arrived to Siberia, because of the tortures many died.

Senator Dodd. These were Rumanians?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No, no, Russians. And I give it to the Senate.

Mr. Sourwine. Mr.. Chairman, do you wish this list and the document of transmittal to go into the record? There is an English translation to be made.

Senator Dodd. Yes; I believe it should be in the record.

Mr. Sourwine. Will you hand that list to the reporter?

(The list and the document are not listed in this Net publication as they were too copious in nature. However, the information can be copied from the original transcript. Try your local library).

Senator Dodd. I don’t quite understand this. These are 40 Russian Baptists?

Reverend Wurmbrand. 150.

Senator Dodd. Were they in Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. No, no, they are Russians. We got from Russia. Here I have another very interesting document.

Mr. Sourwine. If you would excuse me, please, I believe the Senator’s question raises a point you should clear up. How do you have this information about Russia? Have you been in Russia?

Reverend Wurmbrand. I have worked for years secret missionary work among the Russian soldiers who occupied our country. I speak Russian fluently, and we brought many Russian soldiers to Christ. To preach Christ to the Russians means Heaven on earth. They seek the Gospel as the thirsty soil seeks water. They have not known Him. The beauty of the Gospel you know it when you preach to Russians; how they live it and how they enjoy it, and so I have made some connections.

In a public sitting I can’t say how I have arrived to have these lists.

Mr. Sourwine. You know it to be authentic?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Personally I can tell you from where I have this list, but it is absolutely authentic. It can be controlled. Surely in a public sitting I can’t say how I have received it.

I present to the Senate also a very interesting document, the most interesting I have ever known in this matter, the document, “Li Wei Man.” It is a letter of the Central Committee of the Communist party of China addressed to the Central Committee of the Communist party of Cuba. Now recently they have quarreled but this letter is an older one in which they teach how to win the leadership of the churches for communism, how to make that the communists should be leaders of the churches. It is an unequaled document of Machiavelianism.

We have lived these things but never have I seen it put on paper as this.

Mr. Sourwine. May I suggest this be printed as an appendix to the record, Mr. Chairman?

Senator Dodd. Yes.

Senator Dodd. I take it what you have been telling us must be more or less common knowledge in Rumania, is it?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; surely.

Senator Dodd. Would it be accurate to deduce that the embassy officials of the several countries must have heard it too?

Reverend Wurmbrand. They don’t wish to be troubled in their quietness. They close their eyes before this menace. I have met men who simply close their eyes when I told them about these things. They know that they are true. But they have a certain policy of friendly relationship with the communist countries, and they are very honest men, but they are duped exactly as we were duped in Rumania.

Wherever the communists came in the beginning, they said the same thing which I read here in newspapers and in periodicals. “You know Stalin’s communism has been very bad, but Yugoslavian communism or another kind of communism, this is very good.”

A little lion in its first days you can play with him just like with a puppy. When he becomes great, only then he is a lion. Yugoslavian communism is this little communism. And American communism a very little one and English communism is a very little one. When they grow, when they can do whatever they will to do, then only we can see them With us, in the beginning, we also had a very nice communism. I have seen in Rumanian Communist demonstrations signs with the slogan, “God save the King.” I have seen the communist Secretaries of State making great crosses, showing themselves as being on the side of religion and making compliments to religion and bowing to religion and saying they are Democrats. In the beginning, they have put in prison party members who said that the agriculture must be collectivized. And they have gone together with the bourgeois party, with the Liberal Party of Tatorescu and with other Democrats.

I have seen in the West Social Democrats collaborate with them. In Rumania, I have seen dying Social Democrats in the same cell with me; they died. Communists in Rumania, too, were nice until they had the whole power in hand. When they had the whole power in hand, they have done things exactly as in Russia, and so they will do everywhere. There is no difference.

Mr. Sourwine. You mentioned demonstrations by the Communists. Does Rumania have anything like the demonstrations that are so prevalent in this country, demonstrations against the Government’s activities or against its policies?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Nobody can say a word of criticism. Such a thing doesn’t even enter in the mind of somebody. I will tell you something of which may be laughable for you. It is very tragical with us. But the story is just as I tell you. I know the man. A man was in a barbershop in a little town, Sibiu. While the barber shaved him, he said to the barber: “What should I do? My hair falls.” The barber said, “Very well, I will make you a friction but you must not be anxious about this. The most intelligent people of the world have been bald.” On the other seat there was an officer of the secret police and he said to the barber, “What have you said now?”

“I have said that the most intelligent people of the world are bald.”

“So, you assert that Stalin has not been intelligent.” It is a question of laughter for you but it is tragical with us. Nobody dares to say a word.

I stopped in Newark, and in Philadelphia, a demonstration against the war in Vietnam. I had not this clerical suit on. I stopped the demonstrators and I undressed myself to the belt. Afterwards I heard that it is illegal here in the States, and that I could have gone to prison for this. I undressed myself.

Senator Dodd. It would have been all right on the bathing beach.

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; it was not on the beach. And I told them, “This have Communists done to me. Do you think that American Christians should fight against communism?” So they surrounded me and asked me, “Why have Communists done to you this?” I said to them, “Suppose that I am a murdered. Do you agree that a murderer should be tortured? Has Oswald been tortured? Has Ruby been tortured with you?” They all said, “No; murderers have not been tortured.” I continued: “Then know that I have not be charged with murder. I am a clergyman.” They stopped the demonstration. In Philadelphia there was again such a demonstration. I am not a man of politics. I can’t speak for the war of Vietnam or against the war in Vietnam. I speak this general principle that Christians must be on the side of righteousness.. They must never be on the side of the inquisitors of Christians. They must be on the side of the victims of the inquisitors, they must be on the side of the Christians.

In Philadelphia there was a great meeting. A pastor with clerical suit, a Presbyterian pastor, delivered a speech in which he praised Communists and said that Communists are all right and it is stupid to fight against them. I have learned something from the Communists. In a minute – after – the pastor was no more in the pulpit, I was in the pulpit. I said: “Now I will speak about communism. What do you know about communism? And I will show you my credentials, how I have studied communism.” I undressed myself to the belt. I did not know that all these bad reporters are there and took pictures. And I showed them my body. “That is what Communists do to Christians, and you, Pastor, why don’t you make demonstrations, if you are a Christian and if you have youth in you and vigor, why don’t you demonstrate before the Soviet and Rumanian Embassies and the other embassies against torturing Christians?” And then the public, which has been there booed him and shouted to him “Judas.”

These are Judases. They may be all right innerly, I don’t know their hearts, but I think that Christians, if they wish to demonstrate, they should demonstrate against those who have recently deported 150 Baptist pastors.

Mr. Sourwine. The subcommittee has received substantial information to the effect that the Rumanian Communist Government has infiltrated into this country Communist trained clergy with other missions than those of a spiritual nature. Do you have any information about that?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Rumanian Communists are very interested in the fact that you have here, in the States, something like 300,000 on their side. They can’t very well win them for communism, but they can win them for a leftwing Christianity which supports communism. They have sent here several men, Moisescu, Liviu Stan, and so on. These don’t come with Communist slogans but with the words: “You must love your Rumanian fatherland. *** You must have connections with the Rumanian patriarchy.” Whey I came out from Rumania I saw for the first time a Rumanian newspaper which appears in Bucharest, and which nobody in Bucharest has ever seen. The Voice of the Fatherland it is called, and in the fatherland nobody sees this newspaper. Only your American Rumanians see it and in France. I have never seen it. My son looked at it, and we have never seen it. In this newspaper you read about priests and churches. In our newspapers you will never have a word about the church. There you have pictures of priests and monasteries and how fine it is and so on. They make this propaganda, surely.

Senator Dodd. You mean this paper is only distributed in the free world?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Only in the free world. They have at midnight, which corresponds to I don’t know what hour here in the United States, it is noon or I don’t know what, they have religious services which are jammed in Rumania, but they are emitted from Rumania. We have no religious services on the broadcasts. These are broadcast religious services only that the Americans should know how fine the Communists are and that they have religious services.

Mr. Sourwine. Are you saying that the religious services of the Rumanian Orthodox Church -

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes.

Mr. Sourwine (continuing). Are broadcasts in Rumania at a time which is midnight in Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes.

Mr. Sourwine. Beamed to the Western World?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; sure.

Mr. Sourwine. To the free world?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Sure.

Mr. Sourwine. And not broadcast in Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Sure. In Rumania, nobody hears them.

Mr. Sourwine. Of course, a broadcast beamed from Rumania to the United States necessarily will have enough power to be picked up in Rumania if anyone wanted to tune in.

Reverend Wurmbrand. First of all, it is a very inconvenient hour. It is midnight for us. Secondly, in Rumania it is jammed.

Mr. Sourwine. It is what?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Jammed.

Mr. Sourwine. They jam it in Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. They jam it in Rumania.

Mr. Sourwine. So that even those who know about it, who might try to pick it up —-

Reverend Wurmbrand. It is jammed. You can’t hear it in Rumania.

Mr. Sourwine. Suppose a group of persons were called together trying to tune in that broadcast above the jamming. Would there be reprisals against them? It is an illegal thing?

Reverend Wurmbrand. In this moment, no reprisals would be taken. No reprisals are taken today if somebody hears foreign broadcasts. But everything is noted. What happens with us? We have waves of terror. We have had a great wave of terror from 1948 and 1949 which lasted until 1955. We had the relax until 1958 when nobody was arrested but everything was noted.

Then in 1959 came again a wave of terror, and all those who were noted for years before were taken in. And now the whole spy work continues with us. You are not arrested. But everybody knows that he is spied out and that everything is noted. How far this inner spy net goes is unimagined. In a little townlet of ours there is a little Baptist church with only 22 members. The pastor of that church told me that he is the informer of the secret police and that he knows three members of his church who give information against him. So it was in the church in which I was. The servant of the church had the order to inform who comes to me. I had no salary. So, usually men who came to me brought a little parcel with food and clothes and so on. The servant had to spy out who comes with parcels. In the smallest churches you have five or six who have to spy out what the others do. One neighbor spies the other. Children spy on their father and so on. It is without end so nobody dares to do a thing.

Senator Dodd. I am somewhat interested in these interrogations to which you were subjected. If I understand you correctly, they lasted for hours; is that right?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; surely. 
 

Senator Dodd. Without going into a lengthy explanation, what did they ask you?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Well, they asked many things. First of all they wished to know who has said counterrevolutionary things of all the bishops and priests and pastors and laymen whom I knew. Who has spoken against the Government. Who has something against the Government. How we organized and so on, without end. And now at a certain moment I was tired with being beaten. They told me at a certain moment, “Mr. Wurmbrand, supposing that you are not a counterrevolutionary, you are a well-known pastor in the whole country and everybody had confidence in you and you spoke with bishops and all kinds of men and you have been in so many villages and towns and everybody confessed to you and so forth. Tell us who are the counterrevolutionaries. Don’t speak about your activity. You are all right. You are not a counterrevolutionary. But then show your loyalty toward our Government, tell us who the counterrevolutionaries are. Are you disposed to do so?” So, I said, “Yes; I am disposed.”

When they heard that I am disposed, they asked me: “Do you smoke, do you wish liquors?” Everything I could have at that moment. And he knew, the officer, that he will receive another star there if he gets from me this information. And then he asked me now, “Who are the counterrevolutionaries?” I said, “As you know I have worked on an international scale, so I can tell you the counterrevolutionaries not only in Rumania but even in Russia.”

Oh, he was so glad. I said: “In Russia, you have had as Secretary of State for Internal Affairs, Yagoda. Yagoda has killed thousands of people as counterrevolutionaries. Then you have discovered who has been the counterrevolutionary: Yagoda has been. Yagoda has been shot as counterrevolutionary.

“Then you have had as Secretary of State for Internal Affairs, Beria, and Beria has killed other thousands of people as counterrevolutionaries. Then you have found out who has been the counterrevolutionary: Beria. “Why do you seek the counterrevolutionaries in the church? See them in your own party. And in Rumania it has been the same thing.

Communists are not only anti-Christian. They are anti everything. They are anti their own comrades.

I have been in prison. I have been there with Lucretiu Patrascanu, the great Communist leader, who has brought communism to power in our country. He was put in prison and tortured until he became mad.

My wife has been in prison with Gheorghe Cristescu. Everybody in Rumania knows the founder of communism in Rumania, who has been in prison for communism under the bourgeois. He has been with my wife together, and he said to my wife, “Forty years ago I fought for the 8-hour labor day and now my Communist Party has come to power and I have to work 14 hours a day.”

They are anti absolutely everything. It is not only anti-Christian.

Senator Dodd. What was the name of the prominent woman Communist in Rumania?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Ana Pauker, and she was also in prison.

Senator Dodd. Do you know her?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes, yes surely; she has also been in prison, and she has been kept a short time and then afterward she died of cancer.

Mr. Sourwine. I have no more questions, sir.

Senator Dodd. We don’t have any more questions. Do you have anything more you want to say, Pastor?

Reverend Wurmbrand. I want to say something. I owe it to those with whom I have been in prison. I have told you so many sad things. I don’t wish to end with this note. I must tell you that in these great tortures and this great suffering, Christians have shown themselves as saints and as heroes, and if I am allowed to conclude with just one scene which I have seen myself.

It was at the canal. With us, 150,000 men and women have been arrested to build a canal. Beaten, tortured, hungry, without anything, they had to build a canal.

Senator Dodd. Build a canal?

Reverend Wurmbrand. Yes; a canal, the Danube Canal. My wife has worked and shoveled the earth. At this canal, there was a religious brigade of 400 men, bishops, priests, peasants who loved Christ, sectarians and so on, all who were for religious motives in prison.

Over this brigade criminals have been put, and to the criminals it has been promised that they will be released if they torture these Christians. This promise has never been kept. But imagine a criminal who is sentenced for life, if he knows that he has such a hope. If they saw you in this brigade making a cross as it is a habit with us in Rumania, or folding your hands or saying a word about God you were beaten to death.

And now a Sunday morning the political officer of the prison comes, the whole brigade is gathered, and just at random he sees a young man. He calls him, “What is your name?” He says the name. “What are you by profession?” He said, “A priest.” And then mocking the Communist said, “Do you still believe in God?”

This priest knew that if he says yes, this is the last day of his life. We all looked to him. For a few seconds he was silent. Then his face began to shine and then he opened his mouth and with a very humble but with a very decided voice he said: “Mr. Lieutenant, when I became a priest I knew that during church history thousands of Christians and priests have been killed for their faith, and notwithstanding I became a Christian and I became a priest. I knew what I became. And as often as I entered the altar clad in this beautiful ornate which priests wear I promised to God, “If I will wear the uniform of a prisoner, then also I will serve Him. Mr. Lieutenant, prison is not an argument against religion. I love Christ from all my heart.”

I am sad that I can’t give the intonation with which he said these words. I think that Juliet when she spoke about Romeo, she spoke like that. We were ashamed because we – we believed in Christ. This man loved Christ as a bride loves the bridegroom. This man has been beaten and tortured to death. But this is Rumania. Rumania is a country which is mocked, which is oppressed, but deep in the hearts of the people is a great esteem and a great praise for those who have suffered. The love to God, the love to Christ, the love to fatherland has never ceased. My country will live. With this I finish.

Senator Dodd. Your testimony has certainly been very impressing. (At this point, a member of the audience later identified as L.D. O’Flaherty, addressed the Chair).

Mr. O’Flaherty. Mr. Chairman, we have pretty substantial reason to believe that our brother is in danger of his life, and I don’t know what steps we could take to have him claim asylum here. He has asylum in France, but we fear for his life because as he as told you, they have told him they will bump him off, get a gangster to bump him off. What arrangements if any – I am not a politician or a political science scholar – what arrangements could be made for his asylum in this country? Can he make a declaration to secure asylum here for his protection?

We know individuals have followed him from city to city unknown to him, and I ask this openly here.

Senator Dodd. Would you identify yourself? I didn’t get your name.

Mr. O’Flaherty. O’Flaherty. L.D. O’Flaherty.

Senator Dodd. O’Flaherty?

Mr. O’Flaherty. I am a businessman, a Christian businessman. I am a director in a certain organization here that is giving him support, Friends of Israel. On that basis I make this request. I don’t think he understands the danger.

Reverend Wurmbrand. We have a God who protects us. We have the angels around us.

Senator Dodd. I think we had better discuss this matter privately with the pastor after the public hearing. I don’t think it is a matter which should be discussed publicly.

Mr. O’Flaherty. Thank you.

Senator Dodd. We will adjourn this hearing now subject to further call.

(Whereupon, at 11:50 a.m., the subcommittee adjourned subject to the call of the Chair).

Etichete: persecutie, Senatul SUA, tortura, Wurmbrand

La 27-28 iunie, 2001, în locuri apropiate mormintelor primilor martiri cunoascuţi din România, la Niculiţel, a avut loc o manifestare crasă de intoleranţă religioasă. Materialul anexat conţine articole selectate din presa timpului, precum şi mărturia lui Nicolae Omuţ, cel care aproape că a fost linşat din instigarea preoţilor ortodocşi.

Text Complet :  Romania Libera-7 iunie 2002

Sub obladuirea Inalt PSD-ista a arhiepiscopului Teodosie Tomitanul cinci preoti l-au sechestrat pe primarul din Niculitel si l-au silit sa demisioneze

Ziaristii prezenti au fost incuiati si batuti in biserica – In atentia participantilor la Conferinta Internationala “Bisericile si valorile euro-atlantice”

Conform unui proiect de anvergura, initiat de Asociatia “George C. Marshall – Romania”, Patriarhia Romana si Centrul European pentru Studii de Securitate “George C. Marshall”, la Palatul Patriarhiei din Bucuresti s-a desfasurat Conferinta Internationala “Bisericile si valorile euro-atlantice”, cu o participare extraordinara: presedintele Ion Iliescu, patriarhul Teoctist, premierul Adrian Nastase, ministri, secretari de stat, mitropoliti, episcopi, un rabin, teologi, apartinand unor culte diverse din Romania – Catolic (inclusiv Greco-Catolic), Reformat, Baptist, Mozaic, Armean, Evanghelic etc., pe langa prestigiosii reprezentanti ai Bisericii Ortodoxe Romane si numerosi invitati din strainatate. Intentia acestei Conferinte Internationale iesite din comun a avut conotatii multiple. Intre altele, actuala guvernare a dorit sa arate lumii civilizate ca eforturile Romaniei de integrare euro-atlantica sunt sustinute inclusiv de Biserica (intelegand toate cultele legale), cea mai credibila institutie din tara noastra, in sondajele de opinie!

La acest nivel, reprezentantii cultelor invitate au practicat un discurs diplomatic (desi ar fi fost un prilej tocmai potrivit sa-si spuna si durerile!), sugerand factorilor externi imaginea tonica a unui cor ce intoneaza in armonie deplina un fel de noua “Cantare a integrarii auro-atlantice”. (In paranteza fie spus, Bisericile crestine n-au absolut nimic de-a face cu NATO sau UE, atata timp cat Cristos, intemeietorul crestinismului, a spus cat se poate de clar: “Imparatia mea nu este din lumea aceasta!” Obiectul de activitate al cultelor nu e integrarea in imparatia euro-atlantica, ci mantuirea sufletelor in “Imparatia lui Dumnezeu”, daca mai consideram Biblia cartea fundamentala a crestinismului.)

Trecand peste toate lucrurile discutabile, va propunem sa urmariti in pagina de fata cum intelege arhiepiscopul Teodosie Tomitanul, apropiat al patriarhului Teoctist, sa integreze Arhiepiscopia Dobrogei, aflata sub directa sa obladuire, in structurile si valorile euro-atlantice, pornind de la prezentarea unui caz concret: violentele deosebit de grave de la Niculitel, din noiembrie anul trecut, cu urmari in desfasurare inca, starnite de intentia reprezentantilor unor culte cu mare pondere in America, inclusiv NATO, de a proiecta filmul documentar “Isus”, la Caminul cultural din localitate. Pentru intelegerea exacta a lucrurilor se impun cateva precizari necesare:

Filmul “Isus”, a carei intentie de proiectare a provocat sechestrarea de catre slujitorii lui Teodosie a primarului din Niculitel si obligarea lui sa demisioneze – fapt fara precedent in Romania ultimilor ani ai tranzitiei, ce aminteste izbitor de violente similare din perioada interbelica – a fost tradus in peste 130 de limbi si difuzat in toata lumea, inclusiv pe principalele posturi romanesti de televiziune, fiind o pelicula documentara, realizata pe baza informatiilor apostolice din Noul Testament. El a fost vazut, cu siguranta, atat de arhiepiscopul Teodosie, cat si de satenii din Niculitel, astfel incat interzicerea proiectarii lui la Caminul cultural din localitate pare de-a dreptul absurda!

In perioada cand se intamplau violentele urate si cu totul regretabile de la Niculitel, prezentate in aceasta pagina, opt misionari americani au fost sechestrati de talibanii din Afganistan, in timpul razboiului de anul trecut, pentru intentia de a proiecta exact acelasi film – “Isus”, cazul fiind urmarit de mass-media din intreaga lume. Sa ne situeze arhiepiscopul Teodosie Tomitanul, din punct de vedere al intolerantei religioase, pe acelasi plan cu fundamentalistii Afganistanului?

Cultele neoprotestante minoritare, legal admise in Romania, sunt majoritare si foarte active in America, 11 din cei 13 generali americani (sa zicem) de care depinde integrarea Romaniei in NATO, apartinand acestor culte (ca practicanti), ai caror reprezentanti au fost agresati in mod inadmisibil la Niculitel, de catre “talibanii” arhiepiscopului Teodosie si acuzati ca sunt “satanisti”. Reprezentanti ai acestor culte “sectante si satanice” sunt invitati insa tocmai la actuala Conferinta Internationala de la Palatul Patriarhal, cu tema “Bisericile si valorile euro-atlantice”, desfasurata in prezenta presedintelui Romaniei.

In sfarsit, cei patru martiri crestini din secolul al IV-lea, descoperiti la Niculitel, au cazut victime unor acte de ura, intoleranta si violente fizice, similare celor comise de fundamentalistii arhiepiscopului Teodosie asupra crestinilor care intentionau sa proiecteze filmul “Isus” la Caminul cultural din Niculitel. Invocarea acestor martiri ai locului in sprijinul unor actiuni de violenta, ura si intoleranta religioasa din zilele noastre nu are absolut nimic de-a face nici cu “valorile euro-atlantice”, nici cu fundamentele religiei crestine.

Intentia de a proiecta filmul “Isus” produce violente la Niculitel

In ziua de 22 noiembrie 2001, Alianta Evanghelica din Romania (AER), care include trei culte crestine (Baptist, Penticostal si Crestinii dupa Evanghelie), legal admise in tara noastra, s-a adresat in scris Primariei din Niculitel, solicitand acordul acesteia pentru difuzarea filmului “Isus” la Caminul cultural din localitate, in zilele de 30 noiembrie si 1 decembrie. In dimineata de marti, 27 noiembrie, pastorul Adrian Dordea si alti trei crestini ai Bisericii Baptiste din Isaccea, reprezentanti ai AER, au venit cu un microbuz (marca VW, culoare portocalie, numar de inmatriculare 04 TL BCB) la Primaria comunei Niculitel pentru a afla raspunsul oficial la solicitarea facuta.

Primarul Mihai Anastase n-a vazut nimic rau in proiectarea filmului “Isus”, o pelicula vazuta pe tot mapamondul, adusa la Niculitel de reprezentanti ai unei asociatii crestine, care activeaza in Romania in deplina legalitate. Dupa ce a discutat cu directorul Caminului cultural si cu directorul scolii, primarul a aprobat difuzarea filmului “Isus” si la Niculitel, dupa ce fusese difuzat de cateva ori si pe principalele noastre posturi de televiziune, de sarbatori: “In principiu, m-am gandit la copii, pentru ca fac religie in scoala si nu exista material didactic mai bun decat filmul «Isus»”. Intalnindu-se cu primarul si cu directorul Caminului cultural din Niculitel, reprezentantii AER au aflat de avizul favorabil dat de Consiliul local pentru proiectarea filmului, au platit taxa de 400.000 lei pentru inchirierea spatiului destinat proiectiilor, au anuntat organele de ordine si au lipit afise promotionale in zona centrala a localitatii.

Dupa terminarea acestor demersuri, cei patru reprezentanti ai AER, Adrian Dordea, Stefan Robu, Radu Salgau si Denis Miscolenco, s-au retras in curtea unei persoane cunoscute din Niculitel. Pe la ora 10,30 si-a facut aparitia Cristian Onea, unul dintre preotii ortodocsi din Niculitel, insotit de dascalul Batog si un grup foarte violent. Preotul a inceput sa-i injure pe cei patru reprezentanti ai AER, aflati in curtea gospodarului din Niculitel, numindu-i sectanti si satanisti, cerandu-le sa paraseasca localitatea si amenintandu-i cu bataia si cu evacuarea fortata, desi grupul parintelui Onea a fost intampinat cu calm si cu o atitudine pasnica de crestinii baptisti. La iesirea celor patru din curtea localnicului, preotul Onea a inceput sa-i blesteme si sa-i ameninte cu violente si represalii in centrul comunei. Intr-adevar, clopotele bisericii au inceput sa bata intr-o dunga, semnal specific la care se apeleaza foarte rar, in caz de incendiu, de mari primejdii, sau cand comunitatea este amenintata de furtuni naprasnice. La indemnul preotului Onea, dascalul Batog a spart cu un cutit una dintre rotile microbuzului (spate, dreapta) provocand o pana de cauciuc.

Dupa ce au inlocuit roata, cei patru au urcat in masina si au pornit spre Politie, pentru a anunta cele intamplate, dar in momentul in care au ajuns in centrul comunei, preotul Onea era deja inconjurat de o multime violenta de aproape o suta de persoane, starnite de dangatul clopotelor. Grupul a blocat soseaua, cu intentia sa-i agreseze fizic pe “sectantii care au venit sa darame biserica” (in luna noiembrie a anului trecut, presa tocmai scria despre demolarea bisericilor greco-catolice din Transilvania de catre preoti ortodocsi, la fel de agresivi ca si cei din Niculitel!). La indemnul parintelui Onea, oamenii lui au inconjurat masina, lovind-o violent cu pumnii, intr-un cor de huiduieli si injuraturi, au incercat sa-i sparga geamurile si sa o rastoarne, dar soferul a inaintat cu precautie prin multime si a reusit sa paraseasca localitatea, fara sa raneasca pe cineva.

A doua zi, miercuri, 28 noiembrie 2001, a fost depusa o plangere la sectia de Politie a orasului Isaccea (in raza careia se afla postul de Politie din Niculitel), cu declaratiile celor implicati in incidente. Maiorul Paul Machidon, comandantul Politiei din Isaccea, a acordat un interviu unui reporter de la un post local de televiziune, “Telegraf & TV Neptun”, in care a confirmat legalitatea demersurilor intreprinse de AER referitoare la proiectarea filmului “Isus” in localitatea Niculitel, judetul Tulcea.

Arhiepiscopul Teodosie s-a infuriat ca presa a ajuns la Niculitel

In aceeasi zi de 28 noiembrie, domnul Nicolae Omut, reprezentant al AER, implicat in difuzarea filmului “Isus”, afland de cele intamplate, a venit la Isaccea si apoi s-a deplasat la Niculitel pentru a discuta cu autoritatile locale despre situatia creata. Impreuna cu el au venit din Constanta reportera Dana Marmandia si cameramanul Edi Moraru, de la postul local de televiziune “Telegraf & TV Neptun”, pentru a se documenta la fata locului despre incidentele petrecute cu o zi inainte.

La ora 13.30, la Primaria Niculitel se aflau la masa discutiilor primarul Mihai Anastase, comandantul postului de Politie din Niculitel, reporterul Dana Marmandia, cameramanul Edi Moraru, ambii de la “Telegraf TV Neptun” din Constanta, si Nicolae Omut, din partea AER. Au fost invitati sa participe, cum era si firesc, cei doi preoti ortodocsi ai localitatii Niculitel, fratii Cristian si Gabriel Onea, aflati in centrul evenimentelor. Dupa o lunga perioada de asteptare, au sosit si ei la Primarie, iar reporterii TV le-au propus un interviu despre cele intamplate in ziua precedenta. Cei doi preoti nu au acceptat sa stea de vorba cu ziaristii “fara binecuvantarea Inalt Prea Sfintitului Teodosie”, arhiepiscopul Tomisului si al Dobrogei, de eparhia caruia apartine parohia din Niculitel.

L-au sunat la telefon din Primarie, dar neobtinand incuviintarea arhiepiscopului Teodosie, preotii au refuzat sa stea de vorba cu ziaristii si au parasit Primaria. “IPS Teodosie a cerut sa vorbeasca la telefon cu reporterul Dana Marmandia” – relateaza Nicolae Omut -, aratandu-se foarte mirat si surprins neplacut de faptul ca Telegraf TV Neptun a ajuns pana la Niculitel.

Fundamentalistii lui Teodosie au pornit “Razboiul Sfant” la Niculitel

Cei doi reporteri si-au inceput documentarea prin comuna, inregistrand declaratii atat de la cei agresati, cat si opinii ale satenilor din Niculitel. Majoritatea interviurilor au fost luate in fata bisericii ortodoxe din comuna, pana cand, potrivit relatarilor ulterioare ale reporterei Dana Marmandia, in poarta lacasului de cult au aparut cei doi preoti ai localitatii, fratii Cristian si Gabriel Onea. Vazand ca presa se intereseaza indeaproape de incidente, inregistrand marturiile celor implicati, preotii au inceput sa vocifereze si sa instige satenii sa refuze colaborarea cu ziaristii. In jurul orei 14.30, clopotele au inceput sa fie trase in dunga, la fel ca in ziua precedenta, chemand credinciosii ortodocsi sa se solidarizeze in fata “primejdiei de moarte” care ameninta localitatea Niculitel. Primejdia fiind, desigur, proiectarea filmului “Isus” la Caminul cultural din comuna!

Oamenii au inceput sa se adune de pe strazile laturalnice. In aceasta situatie, Nicolae Omut a incercat sa intoarca masina parcata peste drum de biserica. In acea clipa, cei doi preoti Onea l-au identificat strigand: “El e pastorul! Pe el!” Ziaristii s-au indreptat si ei, instinctiv, spre masina, incercand sa surprinda evenimentele pe caseta. Iata, in continuare, relatarea domnului Omut, angajat al Aliantei Evanghelice din Romania: “Am pornit motorul, spunandu-le ca plecam. Reporterii n-au mai apucat sa urce in masina. Cu forta si cu huiduieli, imbranciti si loviti, reporterii au fost bagati in curtea bisericii. Au inceput sa ridice masina pentru a ma rasturna. Preotul Cristian, dupa ce blocasem usa, mi-a cerut sa deschid: «Daca nu, te rasturnam!» Simtind cum se balanseaza si se ridica masina cu mine, am deschis portiera si multimea infuriata s-a repezit la mine sa ma scoata din masina, strigand: «Satanistilor, ce cautati aici?» Preotul Cristian mi-a smuls cheile masinii din contact, a ridicat capota si l-am auzit strigand: «Ia-i delcoul!»”.
Vasile Boghici, alt preot ortodox, detasat disciplinar din judetul Tulcea la Basarabi, in judetul Constanta, a fost mobilizat de urgenta de arhiepiscopul Teodosie la Niculitel, dandu-i-se prilejul sa-si mai spele din pacatele vechi si sa se afirme, agresandu-i pe “satanistii” cu filmul “Isus”. Cu acelasi exces de zel si “evlavie” teodosiana, Vasile Boghici i-a smuls geanta lui Nicolae Omut, l-a scos din masina tragandu-l de par, de cravata si de gulerul paltonului. Desi era cu cravata si paltonul rupte, batjocorit si impins incolo si incoace de multimea furioasa, gata sa-l sfasie si sa-l striveasca la instigarea preotilor, desi nu mai reprezenta nici o amenintare pentru sutele de fundamentalisti isterizati, “parintele” Cristian Onea i-a mai tras un pumn puternic in ochiul drept, sa-i fie invatatura de minte, sa nu mai umble pe coclauri cu proiectarea filmului “Isus”!

Primarul, sechestrat in primarie si ziaristii, batuti in biserica

In acest timp, ziaristii au fost agresati si ei de catre preoti si multimea infierbantata. Cameramanului i s-a pus mana in gat, fiind fortat sa deschida camera de luat vederi si sa predea caseta video cu inregistrarea a tot ce s-a intamplat acolo. Poseta reporterei a fost scotocita ca nu cumva sa mai ascunda, printre farduri si nimicuri feminine, vreun casetofon secret. Apoi au fost imbranciti si agresati in biserica “Preacuvioasa Paraschiva”, unde au fost sechestrati mai bine de o ora si jumatate, fara sa li se ingaduie sa anunte Politia, ziarul “Telegraf” sau macar Arhiepiscopia Tomisului, de unde Teodosie Tomitanul coordona “Razboiul Sfant” din Niculitel. In cele din urma, au fost lasati sa “evadeze” din localitate cu masina unui satean, care i-a depus in fata Garii din Tulcea, de unde au ajuns la Inspectoratul Judetean de Politie.

Continuam relatarea victimei Nicolae Omut: “Aplicandu-mi continuu lovituri, m-au bagat inapoi, cu forta, in masina. Afara, l-am auzit pe preotul Cristian Onea vorbind, mintind de fapt multimea: «Am fost chemati la Primarie, sechestrati si obligati sa dam un interviu la televiziune. Nu am vrut. Primarul i-a adus pe ziaristi aici. Mergem sa dam jos primarul. Astazi trebuie sa cada primarul!»”. Erau in jur de vreo patru sute de sateni infierbantati de preoti. Intre ei au mai putut fi remarcati preotul Remus Dorobantu din Isaccea si preotul Costica Popa din Somova, mobilizati de Teodosie.

Cu hainele rupte, batjocorit si terfelit de sateni, Nicolae Omut a fost tarat la Primarie. Instigata de preotii Cristian Onea si Boghici, multimea a luat cu asalt Primaria, ca la 1907, a patruns in interiorul institutiei, simbolul autoritatii statului de drept in comuna, l-a sechestrat pe primarul Mihai Anastase si l-a fortat sa-si dea demisia. “Parintele” Boghici, mutat disciplinar la Basarabi, in judetul Constanta, si aparut “ca prin minune” in Niculitel, la momentul potrivit, asa cum apare peste tot unde e iz de scandal, i-a dictat demisia primarului si l-a obligat sa o semneze. Iata cum relateaza ziarul local “Obiectiv” scena – probabil unica in Romania – in care un preot il obliga pe primarul ales democratic al unei localitati sa demisioneze, incalcand flagrant separarea constitutionala a puterilor in stat: “In fata presiunii, fara drept la replica, primarul Mihai Anastase a inceput sa-si scrie demisia: «Subsemnatul, la indicatia preotului Boghici…»; «Nu! Nu! Nu! – a intervenit prompt popa. Scrie cum dictez eu!» Si i-a dictat demisia. Primarul a semnat, a stampilat si a pus-o la dispozitia popii. Acesta a fluturat-o apoi multimii, care a aplaudat zgomotos, si l-a insarcinat pe preotul Cristian sa o trimita imediat, prin fax, la Prefectura”.

Intre timp, alti doi reprezentanti ai AER, veniti de la Tulcea, au fost agresati de multime, in urma insistentelor de a fi lasati sa ajunga la Primarie, pentru a constata starea in care se afla cei sechestrati. In momentul in care unul dintre ei, Adrian Popa, a incercat sa fotografieze evenimentele, multimea a tabarat asupra celor doi, lovindu-i in cap, doborandu-i la pamant, rupandu-le hainele si lovindu-i cu picioarele. Abia dupa ce incercarile de a-i trimite pe oamenii infierbantati spre casa au esuat, a sosit de la Tulcea un pluton de jandarmi, care a facut posibila eliberarea sechestratilor din Primarie: primarul demisionar si reprezentantii agresati ai AER, care au putut, astfel, sub protectia jandarmilor, sa paraseasca localitatea Niculitel. Masina lui Nicolae Omut a ramas sechestrata in continuare in fata bisericii, fiind recuperata abia mai tarziu, dupa ce a fost depusa o plangere la Politia din Tulcea, alaturi de plangerile penale ale ziaristilor implicati in evenimente. Certificatele medico-legale, eliberate in ziua de 29 noiembrie 2001, la Constanta, sunt o dovada concludenta a tratamentului brutal la care au fost supusi sechestratii din Niculitel.

Rasculatii din Niculitel au amenintat, la un moment dat, ca vor ocupa Prefectura din Tulcea. S-a ajuns pana acolo incat au fost masate importante forte de ordine pentru apararea Prefecturii, in spatele tuturor acestor agresiuni aflandu-se, desigur, mana-forte a arhiepiscopului Teodosie. Evenimentele de la Niculitel, in derulare inca, au fost urmarite cu atentie, profesionalism si curaj de o buna parte din presa locala, din judetele Tulcea si Constanta, solidara in a condamna cu fermitate fundamentalismul “taliban” al slujitorilor lui Teodosie, care au strivit in picioare libertatea de informare si drepturile ziaristilor.

Rebeliunea religioasa din Niculitel ameninta sa ocupe Prefectura Tulcea

Pe toata perioada “rascoalei religioase” de la Niculitel, instrumentata de “talibanii” arhiepiscopului Teodosie Tomitanul, presa locala a scris cu promptitudine, cu admirabil curaj si onestitate profesionala despre evenimente, semn ca in judete ca Tulcea sau Constanta democratia se face simtita si isi intra treptat in exercitiu, inclusiv in ceea ce priveste reflectarea dreptului constitutional la pluralismul optiunilor religioase. Titlurile aparute – evident – pe prima pagina a principalelor cotidiane din cele doua judete sunt deosebit de dure si expresive, ceea ce ar trebui sa-i dea de gandit arhiepiscopului Dobrogei. Sa enumeram cateva: “Sa faci ce zice popa, nu ce… bate popa / Jihad ortodox la Niculitel” (Independentul); “Razmerinta cu iz religios la Niculitel / Preotul Boghici apara ortodoxia cu pumnul” (Obiectiv); “S-a intors lumea cu susul in jos / Fete bisericesti instigatoare la violenta fizica” (Telegraf); “La Niculitel au batut clopotele ca la razboi” (Acum); “Conflict interconfesional / Primarul comunei Niculitel este acuzat de prozelitism” (Delta) etc. Iata cateva informatii la cald, decupate din ziarele locale, cu declaratii ale oficialitatilor facute in acele zile:

Joi, 29 noiembrie, in jurul orei 13,30, un dispozitiv de politisti a fost mobilizat in fata si pe culoarele Prefecturii Tulcea, fiindca se zvonea ca turbulentii rebeliunii populare din Niculitel vor sa ocupe Prefectura. In cursul dupa-amiezei de joi, forte ale Politiei au pregatit strategia de aparare in cazul in care cele 300 de persoane din Niculitel si-ar fi facut aparitia la Prefectura Tulcea.

Dumitru Saragea, colonel, inspector sef la IJP Tulcea:
“Dispozitivul a fost retras dupa 15 minute, pentru ca s-a dovedit ca nu mai era necesar. Miercuri, politistii au incercat sa pastreze ordinea in Niculitel, pentru ca ar fi fost altercatii. In prezent, situatia este sub control si se afla acolo 7 politisti din Isaccea”.

Mihai Anastase, primarul din Niculitel: “Marti, intre orele 11 si 17, au batut clopotele ca la razboi pentru a se aduna lumea, pentru a-mi da demisia. Miercuri am fost chemat la domnul prefect, impreuna cu preotii, cu directorul Caminului cultural, cu seful de post din Niculitel si cu seful Politiei tulcene. Domnului prefect i s-a spus ca incerc sa introduc o alta religie in Niculitel! Miercuri, preotul Boghici cu 150 de oameni au intrat la mine in birou si m-au obligat sa-mi dau demisia, iar eu le-am cerut sa mi-o dicteze… M-au huiduit, iar preotul Boghici mi-a cerut demisia. Pentru a scapa de presiuni, am fost nevoit sa ma conformez si, personal, i-am inmanat cererea de demisie”.

Dana Marmandia, jurnalista la “TV Neptun”:
“Eu si cameramanul Edi Moraru am fost sechestrati timp de o ora si jumatate in biserica. Am fost bruscati, eu am fost trasa de par si stransa de gat. Caseta confiscata nu am capatat-o inapoi. In final, dupa rugamintile noastre, ne-au trimis cu o masina la Constanta”.

Ion Vargau, prefectul de Tulcea:
“Organele de ancheta insarcinate de mine au misiunea sa identifice cine a provocat tulburarile. Pot sa va spun ca in momentul de fata, 20 de persoane sunt cercetate pentru acte de vandalism si nu ascund ca se va lasa si cu dosare penale. In ceea ce priveste primarul, sa-si aleaga soarta”.

Incalcarea principiilor de baza ale statului de drept

In urma evenimentelor de la Niculitel, Uniunea Bisericilor Crestine Baptiste din Romania a trimis cate o scrisoare de protest reprezentantilor puterii de stat, presedintelui Ion Iliescu, presedintilor celor doua Camere ale Parlamentului, Nicolae Vacaroiu si Valer Dorneanu, primului ministru Adrian Nastase, in care se apreciaza ca violentele din 27-28 noiembrie 2001 sunt un nou act de incalcare a principiilor de baza ale statului de drept: drepturile fundamentale ale omului, libertatea de expresie, anularea rezultatului unor alegeri democratice, prin impunerea demisiei primarului, imixtiunea Bisericii in treburile institutiilor de stat etc.: “Evenimente cum este cel de la Niculitel nu sunt deloc rare sau intamplatoare (cazul Ruginoasa, Cornereva etc.), ele inscriindu-se intr-un sir de actiuni menite sa denigreze si sa descurajeze activitatea si marturisirea de credinta a crestinilor baptisti, actiuni care nu reprezinta decat continuarea unor practici agresive la care sunt supusi o parte din cetatenii Romaniei…”

Protestul se incheie cu speranta ca “Romania trebuie sa lupte impotriva intolerantei si invrajbirilor religioase, iar ca popor trebuie sa devenim mai intelepti si mai deschisi fata de valorile promovate de celalalt, un rol semnificativ in eradicarea agresivitatii avandu-l chiar actiuni de genul celei promovate la Niculitel (difuzarea filmului «Isus»), actiune cu caracter cultural, educativ si religios, menita sa-i invete pe oameni sa aprecieze valorile autentice, valorile propovaduite de Domnul nostru Isus Hristos: iubirea fata de aproape, bunatatea, smerenia si frica de Dumnezeu”.

In urma acestor demersuri si sesizari privind evenimentele de la Niculitel, o informatie recenta aparuta in publicatia religioasa “Crestinul, azi”, confirma ca Inspectoratul de Politie al judetului Tulcea a luat masuri si, conform adresei nr. 25536/20.02.2002, semnata de lt. col. Nicolae Baltag, seful inspectoratului, “aspectele penale au fost cercetate si dosarul cu propuneri a fost inaintat Parchetului de pe langa Tribunalul Tulcea, la 18.02.2002″. Urmeaza ca si Justitia sa-si spuna cuvantul.

D. Moinescu
Romania Libera-15 iunie 2002
Presiuni politice asupra anchetatorilor
Politia si Parchetul au musamalizat ancheta privind conflictul religios de la Niculitel
Scandalul provocat in 27 noiembrie 2001 in satul Niculitel de catre preotii ortodocsi din aceasta localitate impotriva reprezentantilor Aliantei Evanghelice din Romania despre care ziarul nostru a relatat pe larg a fost musamalizat de Politia si Parchetul din Tulcea. Desi sunt dovezi indubitabile ca preotii din Niculitel, cu stiinta arhiepiscopului Tomisului, au sechestrat mai multi reprezentanti ai Aliantei Evanghelice din Romania si doi ziaristi de la un post de televiziune din Constanta. Anchetatorii nu au gasit vreo persoana vinovata pentru toate aceste violente care miros de la o posta a fundamentalism religios. Nu mai vorbim de faptul ca enoriasii incitati de preoti au recurs si la violenta. Trebuie spus ca inca din 27 noiembrie anul trecut Politia a declansat o ancheta penala si in luna februarie a acestui an a inaintat un dosar la Parchetul Tulcea prin care nu se retine insa nici o fapta penala impotriva persoanelor reclamate de reprezentantii Aliantei Evanghelice din Romania si ai postului TV Neptun. Mai mult, preotii Vasile Boghici, Cristian si Gabriel Onea, care au incitat enoriasii ortodocsi din Niculitel, l-au sechestrat pe primarul comunei in primarie si l-au obligat sa-si scrie demisia, nici macar nu au fost audiati in acest dosar, desi exista plangeri impotriva acestora. Anchetatorii ne-au declarat, sub protectia anonimatului, ca in realitate nu s-a facut ancheta impotriva preotilor si a celor care au produs conflictul religios din Niculitel de frica sa nu rascoale iarasi tot satul. Detinem insa informatii ca sefii PSD din Tulcea au intervenit brutal in ancheta Politiei si au determinat scoaterea din cauza a celor trei preoti din Niculitel acuzati de producerea scandalului care a fost la un pas de a se transforma intr-un veritabil macel. Doar interventia rapida a trupelor de jandarmi din Tulcea a dezamorsat conflictul de la Niculitel. Se ajunsese in asa hal de iritare a oamenilor incat satul se impartise in tabere, iar clopotele bisericii din sat au batut ore intregi ca la razboi. Toate acestea au fost trecute insa cu vederea de anchetatori pentru a le face pe plac arhiepiscopului Tomisului Teodosie si liderilor PSD din Tulcea…

Neculai Amihulesei

MARTURIE scrisa de OMUT NICOLAE
Astazi,dupa ce prin purtarea de grija a Bunului Dumnezeu am scapat cu viata in urma maltratarii savarsite direct de cei trei preoti ortodocsi din Niculitel,Onea Cristian,Onea Gabriel si Boghici Vasile,cu o adanca amaraciune in inima imi pun intrebarea:cine a pus ,,pumnul in gura” televiziunii TV. Neptun pentru a nu transmite pe post ,in 29.XI.2001, reportajul filmat despre ,,Jihadul de la Niculitel” ,care s-a petrecut in dupa amiaza si seara zilei de 28 noiembrie.2001?Cine are interesul ca adevarul sa nu iasa la iveala si de ce?
Dand dovada de un deosebit profesionalism in ziarul Telegraf a fost prezentat foarte clar si concis evenimentul petrcut sub ochii reporterilor Dana Marmandiu si Edi Moraru. a Pentru ca la un moment dat al actiunii echipa Telegraf TV.Neptun a fost sechestrata in biserica ortodocsa ,iar eu sechestrat in masina si ulterior in primarie,voi face o prezentare detaliata evenimentelor .

In baza unei adrese scrise, de informare catre Primaria Niculitel ,din partea Aliantei Evenghelice din Romania, din 22.XI.2001 ,s-a primit avizul favorabil de difuzare a filmului Iisus in Caminul Cultural pentru zilele de 30.XI.2001 si 1.XI.2001.Acest film a fost tradus in peste 175 de limbi,iar in Constanta in anul 1998 filmul a fost difuzat in 33 de locuri pe parcursul a cinci zile.Cel mai recent filmul a fost prezentat anul acesta cu ocazia Sfintelor Sarbatori de Pasti pe postul de televiziune TV.Acasa ,impreuna cu cateva cuvinte de apreciere fata de Persoana Mantuitorului nostru Iisus Hristos aduse de Preafericitul Patriarh Teoctist, Parintele Galeriu si alti oameni de seama.Pe data de 14.sept.2001 filmul a fost reluat tot pe programul TV.Acasa .
In cursul zilei de 27.XI.2001, reperzentantii A.E.R,dupa o scurta intrevedere cu primarul comunei Niculitel,domnul inginer Anastase Mihai si directorul Caminului Cultural,s-a platit taxa de 400 mii lei pentru inchirierea caminului in vederea proiectiilor de film.Cei patru reperezentanti AER, domnii :Adrian Dordea,Stefan Robu,Radu Salgau si Denis Miscolenco,s-au apucat sa puna afise .Era in jurul orei 10:30 cand si-a facut aparitia preotul ortodocs ,Onea Cristian insotit de un grup de oameni foarte violenti.Au inceput sa-i injure si sa-i blasteme cerandu-le sa paraseasca comuna spunandu-le ca sunt sectanti si satanisti.Cand sa plece ,o roata de la masina avea cauciucul taiat .Localnicii l-au identificat pe faptas ca fiind dascalul bisericii ortodocse.Deodata,pe la ora 11:00, au inceput sa fie trase clopotele ,,intr-o dunga”,acest semnal fiind specific in cazuri de dezastru ,calamnitati,incendii sau alte pericole.(Ulterior am aflat ca pana la ora 17:00,clopotele au fost trase in mod continuu)Cand s-au deplasat spere vulcanizare ,in centrul comunei,drumul le-a fost barat de un grup de cateva zeci de persoane care i-au obligat sa opreasca, cerandu-le sa coboare.Unii au inceput sa arunce cu gheata in microbuz, sa loveasca cu pumnii in geamuri si incercand sa-i rastoarne cu microbuzul ,i-au impiedicat de-a mai cobori din masina.In huiduieli si injuraturi,incet au reusit sa se strecoare cu masina printre oameni si sa parasesca comuna..Am aflat ca toata camuna , in jur de 5 600 persoane, au fost anuntati de cei doi preoti, fratii Onea Gabriel si Cristian ,,ca sectantii au venit sa darame biserica ortodocsa.”

A doua zi,28.XI.2001, insotind echipa Telegraf TV.Neptun,in drum spre Niculitel, interviaevat fiind prefectul de Tulcea ,s-a putut afla punctul de vedere al acestuia fata de cele intamplate.Fusesera convocati la intalnire primarul din Niculitel ,cei doi preoti si comandantul politiei din Niculitel .
In intentia de a i se lua un interviu comandantului de politie al orasului Isaccea, de care apartine Politia Niculitel , am aflat de la d-nul maior Paul Machidon ca ,,reprezentantii AER au desfasurat o activitate legala in totalitate ,incadrandu-se in prevederile Legii Nr. 60 /96.Acolo l-am gasit pe domnul Dordea Adrian scriind o declaratie dupa ce a depus plangerea catre Politia orasului Isaccea.Au fost intervievati de catre reporter trei din reprezentantii AER, domnii Adrian Dordea,Stefan Robu si Radu Salgau.

La primaria Niculitel ,la oara 13:30, la masa discutiilor erau :primarul inginer Anastase Mihai, comandantul postului de politie din Niculitel, reporter Telegraf TV. Neptun Dana Marmandiu,cameramanul Edi Moraru si reprezentantul AER domnul Nicolae Omut.Au fost nvitati sa participe si cei doi preoti ortodocsi,fratii Onea Cristian si Gabriel.Dupa o lunga asteptare au sosit si reporterul le-a propus un interviu despre cele intamplate ieri.Nu au acceptat fara a avea,,binecuvantarea “I.P.S Teodosie .L-au sunat la talefon dupa care au afirmat ca ,,nu vor spune nimic”,deoarece nu au incuviintarea Inalt Prea Sfintitului si au parasit primaria .I.P.S. Teodosie a cerut sa vorbeasca cu reportera Dana Marmandiu aratandu-se foarte mirat si surprins neplacut ,,cum de a ajuns Telegraf TV Neptun pana la Niculitel .”Intervievat find primarul, a exprimat legalitatea de desfasurare proiectiilor de film de catre AER.Reporterul Telegraf TV.Neptun a avut dorinta de a afla parerile localnicilor.In fata bisericii,,Precuvioasa Paraschiva “,erau 4-5 persoane.Asistand la dialogul cu oameni care initial se fereau din fata video -camerei , dupa ce li s-a explicat ca sunt de la televiziune (li s-a
prezentat si o legitimatie), au inceput sa povesteasca cele petrecute in ziua precedenta.A aparut un tanar mai agitat imbracat intr-o geaca de culoare predominant galbena.Mai tarziu cand mi-a cerut sa-i dau microfonul din masina aveam sa aflu ca numele lui este Catalin.Era ora 14:30 cand au inceput sa bata clopotele ,,in dunga”.Eram oprit cu masina in fata bisericii ortodocse ,pe partea opusa,iar reporterii se aflau pe trotuarul din fata bisericii.Am urcat in masina .Incepusera sa apara oameni de pe toate strazile .Stiind despre cele intamplate cu o zi in urma,intentionam sa intorc masina dar datorita troienelor mari de zapada vedeam dificil acest lucru.N-am apucat sa fac manevra.Clopotele se trageau in continuu.A aparut o masina Dacia ,din care s-au dat jos preotii Onea imbracati in sutana si inca o persoana mai corpolenta,in civil ,care avea barba si purata o caciula neagra.Preotul Onea Cristian a venit direct la mine ,strigand in multime si aratand cu mana spre masina :,,el e pastorul,pe el”.Se adunasera deja vreo 40 de persoane.Reporterii s-au indreptat srpe masina,am pornit motorul spunandu-le ca plecam . N-au apucat sa urce in masina.Cu forta si in huiduieli imbrinciti si loviti,reporterii au fost bagati in curtea bisericii.Au inceput sa ridice masina pentru a ma rasturna.Preotul Cristian,dupa ce blocasem usa ,mi-a cerut ,,sa deschid,daca nu te rasturnam”.Simtind cum sa balanseaza si se ridica masina cu mine ,am deschis portiera si multimea infuriata s-a repezit la mine sa ma scoata din masina, strigand ,,satanistii,ce cautati aici?”.Preotul Cristian mi-a smuls cheile masinii din contact ,a ridicat capota si -i auzeam zicand,,i-ai delcoul”.Eram inconjurat de multimea instigata si atatata de preoti.Din acel moment pe reporterii Telegraf TV.Neptun nu i-am mai vazut.Preotul Onea Cristian avea in mana caseta video scosa din video-camera lui Edi Moraru.Toti vociferau si strgau..” te omorim…”Totul era coordonat de catre preotul Cristian Onea .Celor din jur le spunea ,,sa nu-l lasati sa se dea jos din masina…cauta-l in geanta,poate are chei de rezerva”.Cel cu barba care era de fapt preotul Boghici Vasile ,mi-a smuls cu forta borseta cu actele personale, agenda si geanta in care aveam documente si acte de serviciu.Desi le-am spus ca nu sunt eu pastorul, preotul Boghici Vasile ,in forta ,tragandu-ma de par ,de cravata si gulerul paltonului,m-au scos cu forta din masina.Gatuindu-ma cu cravata care in cele din urma s-a rupt si dupa ce mi s-au rupt nasturii de la camasa si gulerul paltonului au inceput sa ma loveasca cu pumnii in fata ,in cap si sa ma traga de par .In ochiul drept am primit un pumn de la preotul Cristian.Cateva momente n-am vazut nimic cu ochiul.S-au napustit asupra mea cu totii fiind la un pas de a fi calcat in picioare .Aplicandu-mi continuu lovituri,m-au bagat inapoi cu forta in masina ,,stai aici…sa nu te dai jos ca mori…sa nu-l lasati sa coboare ca fuge…sa nu-i faceti nimic”,le spunea preotul Cristian.Simteam cum mi se umfla fata dupa loviturile primite.Afara l-am auzit apoi pe preotul Cristian Onea vorbind -mintind de fapt multimea: ..”Am fost chemati la Primarie ,sechestrati si obligati sa dam un interviu la televiziune.nu am vrut. Primarul i-a adus aici.mergem sa dam jos primarul …Jos primarul ..astazi trebuie sa cada primarul…”Toti au inceput sa strige …”Jos primarul!..”Cateva persoane au ramas in jurul masinii pentru a ma tine sechestrat in masina .In discutiile lor ii auzeam condamnind comportamentul preotilor.La un moment dat am reusit sa trimit un apel la Politia Judetului Tulcea spunandu-le ca sunt sechestrat de o ora in masina in fata bisericii ortodocse din Niculitel,iar cei de la televiziune sunt tinuti in biserica sub sechestru .Aceasta am reusit s-o fac dupa aproximativ o ora,pe la ora 15:30.Clopotele sunau in continuu.Citind din Biblie viata Sfantului martir Stefan ,au vazut ca este Biblia ortodocsa.Ma rugam pentru ei si pe unul l-am auzit facand remarca:,,…uite-l ca plange”.Imi tot repetau prin geam…,,stai acolo ca nu-ti facem nimc”.Ma tot uitam de ce nu apara politia.Se auzeau din cand in cand explozii de vociferare si huiduieli ale multimii.Imi dadeam seama ca sunt in fata Primariei,aceasta situandu-se la cateva sute de metri de biserica.Pe la ora 15:00 a venit o persona si impreuna cu cei din jurul masinii mi-au cerut sa merg la primarie,sa incui masina si sa plec cu ei.Neavand cheile , am asigurat masina si luandu-mi borseta impreuna cu Biblia m-am deplasat escortat de cinci persoane spre primarie.Platoul din fata primariei era plin de oameni care au inceput sa huiduie si sa vocifereze la aparitia mea.Erau peste 300 de persoane.Pe culoarul format prin mltime am ajuns in fata primariei ,unde era un politist si gardieni .Nimeni nu s-a atins de mine.Urcand in biroul primarului l-am gasit acolo pe comandantul politiei Niculitel,domnul Ndedelcu,primarul Anastase Mihai si preotul Boghici Vasile care a inceput sa ma acuze ca ,,am vorbit poporului in fata bisericii ortodocse”si mi-a cerut sa merg sa le vorbesc (Eu care eram tinut ostatec in masina de mai bine de-o ora !.)Primarul isi depusese fortat demisia.Un grup violent a patruns in primarie si preotul Boghici V i-a dictat primarului sa-si scrie demisia,obligandu-l sa o semneze.In acel moment preotul Cristian era plecat, dupa spusele celor din primarie ,la Isaccea pentru a trimite pin fax demisia la prefectura Tulcea.Tot personalul primariei era in primarie tinut sechestrat.Numai atunci am putut lua legatura cu Centrul Informational Telegraf TV.Neptun,pentru a le comunica ce sa petrece.Ei inca nu aflasera nimic.Ma ingrijora soarta reporterilor care erau tinuti sechestrati in biserica interzicandu-le sa dea telefoane.

Dupa ce au fost loviti de multime si trantiti la pamant cei doi reprezentanti AER din Tulcea,domnii Adrian Popa si Costea Florin au reusit sa intre in Primarie .Au mai venit doi preoti,unul de la Somova si celalalt din Isaccea .Multimea era scapata de sub control,nu mai asculta de nimeni.Si-a facut aparitia d-nul maior Paul Machidon ,comandantul politiei din Isaccea .Se innoptase.I s-a cerut preotului Boghici sa vorbeasca oamenilor pentru a-i trimite acasa.Nu a reusit.S-a incercat de mai multe ori patrunderea in forta a multimii in primarie.L a ora 17:30 ,dupa sosirea unui pluton de jandarmi de la Tulcea,s-a facut un culoar prin multime si in huiduieli si strigate reprezentantii AER impreuna cu primarul am reusit sa parasim primaria si localitatea Niculitel,masina meea ramamanand sechestrata in fata bisericii ortodocse.La Politia judetului Tulcea am depus o plangere urmand a se lua masuri fata de preotii Onea Cristian si Boghici Vasile.Acolo i-am gasit si pe reporterii de la TV.Neptun .S-au facut filmarile,luandu-se interviu la toti cei agresati si s-a transmis in direct prin telefon pe TV Neptun la emisiunea de stiri “Reporter” evenimentul de la Niculitel.A sosit la Tulcea inca o echipa de la televiziune care dorea sa ajunga la Niculitel .Au fost sfatuiti sa nu o faca datorita pericolului la care erau expusi ,intorcandu-se cu totii in Constanta .Mie mi s-a comunicat ca politia a reusit sa-mi duca masina din fata bisericii din Niculitel unde ramasese sechestrata, la Politia din Isaccea.. Am reusit sa ajung din nou in posesia masinii la ora 22:00,in care se afla geanta cu acte lipsa si fara agenda de serviciu.

Ieri 29.XI.2001 ziarele din Constanta Telegraf si Independentul au relatat pe larg despre,,Jihadul de la Niculitel”.De asemenea si Ziua de Constanta.

Astazi , la doua zile dupa conflict ,se vad pa fata mea semnele in urma agresiunii suferite,ochii invinetiti si zgarieturile de pe mana si fata.(Certificat medico-legal nr.2481/29.11.2001-Constanta)

Asa au decurs evenimentele si spun toate acestea cu cugetul curat,stiind ca ele sunt cunoscute de Dumnezeul nostru cel viu si adevarat.

Concluzia replicii ,pe care o voi da in curand referitor la cele spuse de I.P.S. Teodosie in Independentul, cu privire la cele intamplate la Niculitel, este: ori dansul este total dezinformat,ori trebuie sa asteptam mania lui Dumnezeu ,pentru ca minciuna a luat locul adevarului in gura celor care ar trbui sa-L reprezinte pe Dumnezeu pe Pamant.

Constanta , la 30.XI.2001 Alianta Evanghelica din Romania
Omut Nicolae

Astazi prin harul Lui Dumnezeu mai traiesc.
Am fost la un pas de a ajunge martir pentru Hristos la Niculitel.
Cu dragoste, Nicolae Omut

Etichete: AER. filmul ISUS, Niculitel, Omut, Tulcea