Source: The Wheel Winter/Spring 2022 The Romanian Orthodox Church in the Age of Autocracy Ionut Biliuta In 2007, when Metropolitan Daniel Ciobotea of Moldova and Bukovina became the sixth Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the theological and priestly worlds were brimming with expectation. A respected scholar of systematic theology with degrees obtained in the West, an ecumenical theologian, and a diplomat of the Church, he was the obvious choice for succeeding the old and beleaguered Patriarch Teoctist Arăpașu. Being the spiritual leader of one of the most significant Orthodox churches was no easy task in post-communist Romania. The Patriarchate…