cecan's fate was the subject of confusion in romania: while some simply noted that he had gone missing, others acknowledged that "somewhere in bessarabia, under a simple cross", he was "awaiting his resurrection". in august 1941, news of his killing were featured in "universul" daily. by september, responding to praise of cecan in the greek-catholic press, orthodox scholar grigorie t. marcu argued that none of the quotes from cecan showed that he asked for submission to the pope. according to marcu, cecan was spuriously reinvented as a catholic martyr. his fate was only revisited after the dissolution of the soviet union, by the authorities of the new republic of moldova. on december 21, 2001, its supreme court of justice overturned the soviet verdict.