“You girls are all mine!” The archdeacon and the pupils at the theological school

UPDATE 28 March 2023: A second teacher at Baia Mare Theological School is leaving the institution due to allegations of inappropriate relationships with minors enrolled there.

In the wake of our investigation, several comments about another teacher at the same school were posted on social media. The teacher, who is also a parish priest, was accused in the online messages of having had inappropriate conversations and relationships with his students.

Our newsroom was contacted by several former pupils who emailed us screenshots of inappropriate messages sent by the teacher to female minors on Snapchat, an app in which all photos and messages sent automatically disappear as soon as they have been viewed. The screenshots received by Recorder show that he made multiple requests to pupils for photos of them and sent them messages with sexual overtones. Shortly after we began verifying the information we had received, the teacher resigned. When contacted by Recorder, he declined to comment on his departure from the institution, saying he felt “abused” by our question. The headmaster, Marius Nechita, told us that “as a result of disparaging messages” posted online, the teacher in question had decided to step down.

The Diocese of Maramureș and Sătmar has said it will send a team of inspectors to Baia Mare Theological School today to investigate the allegations against the former teacher.

UPDATE: Just hours after Recorder’s item was published, the Diocese of Maramureș and Sătmar announced that Archdeacon Daniel Farcaș will be excluded from Baia Mare Orthodox Theological School. The headmaster confirmed that Farcaș will no longer teach there.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Combining the authority of a clergyman with the image of a teacher who was down with the kids, an archdeacon at Baia Mare Orthodox Theological School emotionally manipulated pupils who were minors, morphing from a class teacher into a close friend who dared to send them sexually suggestive messages, pour alcohol down their throats, and be photographed with them in bed.

Recorder obtained messages like these and also photos and videos of a trip that Daniel Farcaș went on as the only adult with the 15-year-old pupils in his class. The images are at once shocking and sickening.

Long before we received them, the images and messages had been sent to the management of the school and Bishop Iustin of Maramureș and Sătmar, a member of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Two pupils spoke to these senior clerics and complained about the behaviour of their teacher, the archdeacon.

Yet the penalties imposed on Farcaș were either minor or motivated by reasons that had nothing to do with the situation at the school. Some of the measures taken by the management ended in a matter of months.

Farcaș is still teaching morality and the New and Old Testaments as if nothing happened. He is also still teaching the class of girls he went on the trip with. 

It is a case that demonstrates the outrageous defiance and hypocrisy of two of Romania’s most influential institutions: the Church and the school system. Two institutions that are supposed to educate and give moral guidance to those in need, but instead put their own interests first. 

The English version of this article and the English subtitles of the video are available thanks to Peter Shortall.