11 out of 17 Bishops of Bulgarian Patriarchate Synod Communist Secret Service Agents
Surprise: even the American Bishop has a codename! Note the report says 11 have been found so far at the end. This is not over.
(Sofia Echo) Bulgaria’s commission charged with announcing the names of people who collaborated with the country’s former communist-era secret services announced on January 17 2012 that 11 out of 17 members of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s governing body, the Holy Synod, had worked for State Security.
The commission also identified senior Roman Catholic clergy and Muslim leaders who had been communist secret service agents or who had collaborated.
Not among the Bulgarian Orthodox Church names was that of Patriarch Maxim, the church’s spiritual leader, who has headed the church for more than 40 years.
 |
| Agent Nikolov (pic source:albionfourthrome.blogspot.com) |
But the names identified as former collaborators include some who spoke out publicly against the church being scrutinised by the Dossier Commission – including Varna Metropolitan Kiril, recently also caught up in controversy about the expensive hybrid car that he had been using.
The other top clergy identified by the commission were metropolitans Galaktikon of Stara Zagora, Dometian of Vidin, Ignatii of Pleven, Yoanikii of Sliven, Grigorii of Veliko Turnovo, Yosif of the United States, Canada and Australia, Kaliniki of Vratsa, Nataniel Nevrokopski, Simeon of Western and Central Europe and Neofit of Rousse.
Galaktikon was agent Misho; Domitian, agent Dobrev; Ignatii, agent Penev; Yoanikii, agent Kirilevich; Grigorii, agent Vanyo; Yosif, agent Nikolov; Kalinik, agent Rilski; Kiril was a secret collaborator with the code name Kovachev and was an agent code-named Vladislav; Nataniel was a collaborator code-named Blagoev; Simeon of Western and Central Europe was a collaborator, as Toris, and an agent, code-named Hristov; Neofit’s code name as an agent was Simeonov.
The process of check-ups among top clergy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was continuing, the commission said.
