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Romanian Bishop Resigns After Being Caught In Gay Sex Tape

Corneliu Barladeanu, the Bishop of Husi, was filmed having sex with a 17-year-old male student.

DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images

Romanian Orthodox Priests hold a religious service in the front of a St. Pavel icon at the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchy in Bucharest on October 24, 2008, as thousands of believers came to worship the Holy Relics of St. Pavel brought to Bucharest for the first time from Saint Nicholas Church in Taganrog, Russia, on October 24, 2008 in Bucharest. AFP PHOTO DANIEL MIHAILESCU (Photo credit should read DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images)
By Dan Avery
August 21, 2017 / 3:09 PM

A bishop in the Romanian Orthodox Church has tendered his resignation after a video surfaced of him having sex with a 17-year-old male.

Corneliu Barladeanu, the Bishop of Husi in northeast Romania, stepped down Friday “for the peace and good of the church,” the patriarchy reported. The 51-year-old cleric maintains his innocence, though, insisting the tape had been doctored. He will remain a monk in the Orthodox church but will hold no official post and cannot celebrate the eucharist.

Romania, Bucharest, Constanta, Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul (Orthodox, 1895), A Baptism Ceremony.

The announcement was made at the end of a two-day Holy Synod, where the scandal was discussed. It's been reported another priest was caught having sex with a male student, leading some to question the church's system of accountability.

“I think that the Synod should have come out with a strong decision to condemn such shameful practices for servants of the church," said political analyst Stelian Tanase. "Instead they preferred a cover up."

Church officials insisted the scandal was fueled by “an aggressive campaign of some media outlets aimed against the Romanian Orthodox Church, often with the complicity of some errant priests. All believers... should respect the discipline of the church and permanently renew their spiritual lives.”

DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images

A Romanian woman holds a pancarte reading in Romanian "NO to the homosexual marriages and adoptions" as another holds an Orthodox icon during a protest against incoming Gay Pride in Bucharest June 8, 2013. Around 300 activists from far-right organizations and Christian orthodox people gather in a protest against homosexuality toward the center of the city as Romania's homosexual community will take to the streets for a Gay Pride parade on Saturday. A controversial amendment to the constitution banning same-sex marriage threatens to overshadow the event. Romanian lawmakers are currently discussing a constitutional amendment restricting the legal definition of marriage to a "union between a man and a woman".The article was proposed by the dominant Orthodox Church and accepted by a parliamentary committee tasked with amending the 1991 constitution. AFP PHOTO DANIEL MIHAILESCU (Ph...

More than 85% of Romanians are members of the Romanian Orthodox Church, which dates back to 1872. It is the second largest in size after the Russian Orthodox Church, and has taken a hard line against LGBT rights: In 2016, the church backed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

While Human Rights Watch praised Romania in 2006 for making "exemplary progress in combating rights abuses based on sexual orientation or gender identity," it remains is one of the only countries in the European Union to deny same-sex relationships any form of recognition,

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