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Bulgarian PM ‘appalled’ by the number of clerics who were communist State Security spies

Thu, Jan 19 2012 17:34 CET

byClive Leviev-Sawyer

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Bulgarian PM ‘appalled’ by the number of clerics who were communist State Security spies

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov

Photo: Nadezhda Chipeva

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov said that he was "appalled" by the proportion of top clerics in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church who had been agents of the country’s communist-era State Security.
 
He was speaking on January 19, two days after the Dossier Commission announced that 11 out of Bulgaria’s 15 metropolitans had been agents or collaborators with State Security.
 
The Holy Synod, the church’s governing body, made up of the metropolitans and the church’s Patriarch, has yet to issue an official response to the disclosures.
 
However, a handful of the metropolitans identified have spoken in public, mostly to defend their participation, although Vratsa Metropolitan Kalinik has offered a qualified apology.
 
Earlier on January 19, Borissov attended the ceremony in Parliament where Rossen Plevneliev and Margarita Popova were sworn in, respectively, as the country’s new President and Vice President.
 
In the course of proceedings, all three kissed the hand of Patriarch Maxim, who has been confirmed as not having been a State Security agent.
 

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