Patriarch Teoctist, 92; Orthodox Church leader invited pope to Romania

Patriarch Teoctist, 92, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, who made history when he invited then-Pope John Paul II to his country in 1999 but also was criticized for being too close to former communists, died Monday of a heart attack after prostate surgery at a Bucharest hospital.

Teoctist was appointed to head the church in November 1986 but briefly stepped down in 1989 after anti-communist protesters said he had been too conciliatory toward former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Teoctist, who had refused to condemn Ceausescu’s destruction of Orthodox churches in Bucharest, was reinstated a few weeks later.

The patriarch won praise when John Paul II visited Romania at Teoctist’s invitation. It was the first invitation extended by an Orthodox Church leader to a Catholic pope since the churches split in the Great Schism of 1054. The two leaders called for the healing of divisions within Christianity.

Born into a poor family in northeastern Romania in 1915, Teoctist was the 10th of 11 children. He became a monk when he was 20.