At this point in the game, it is literally expected that when a person does protest too much about the sexualities of others, a close look at their own private lives, more often than not, will reveal that they are grappling with the very thing they seek punishment in others. This is certainly the case of Romanian Orthodox bishop and Bishop of the city of Husi, Corneliu Barladeanu, who was implicated when a gay sex scandal.

Barladeanu made his name in the last decade, by championing the persecution of LGBT persons in the Romanaina Orthodox Church and the much larger Orthodox Church as spread across the former Soviet Union and Europe. He is best known for leading a charge to stop the repeal of a now defunct Romanian law criminalising homosexuality. So when a grainy video leaked on the internet in late August 2017, Barladeanu was the last person anyone thought of. But he was quickly identified as one of the persons in the video kissing and performing oral sex, the other, a devotee at the seminary the Bishop presides over.

Barladeanu was quick to deny that it was indeed him in the video, but the Romanian Orthodox Church chose to retire him anyway, demoting him to the position of a monk and banning him from holding any positions of influence inside the church. They have however chosen not to excommunicate him, which is a huge step away from the much harsher punishments he personally advocated for LGBT people.

One less oppressor out there. What’s not to be grateful for.

Editor