A promoter of ecumenical dialogue, Patriarch Teoctist invited Pope John Paul II to visit Romania in 1999.

In 1963, an attempt to make him the leader of the Romanian Orthodox community of the United States failed after the U.S. authorities refused to grant him a visa.

[4] On 18 December 1989, at the start of the Romanian Revolution, the Holy Synod had a meeting in which Teoctist announced that he agreed with the repression of the anti-communist movement in Timișoara, claiming the events were caused by foreign interference.

[5] On 18 January 1990, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church accepted the patriarch's resignation by announcing that he retired from his office, without giving any motivation.

[5] In April 1990, The Holy Synod unanimously revoked its decision to accept the resignation and Teoctist was reinstated, claiming that he withdrew temporarily for health reasons.

In 2007, he criticized the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's declaration on "Subsistit in" in Lumen Gentium, saying "We were stunned by such a statement, which troubles the entire Christian world.

"[8] In 1981, when he was the Metropolitan of Moldavia, Teoctist used money from the Orthodox Church to sponsor the Politehnica Iași football club and justified this as being an attempt to do something good for the local community.

[9] After 1989, various accusations were made in the Romanian press, including that he was a collaborator of the Securitate, the political police in Romania, that he allegedly was homosexual and that as a "Legionnaire" (member of the "Legion of the Archangel Michael", an extreme-right Orthodox nationalistic movement of the interwar period, associated politically with the Iron Guard), he stored propaganda materials at the Cernica and Căldărușani monasteries[2] and that he participated in the vandalizing of a Bucharest synagogue.

[10] In July 2006, historian Stejărel Olaru said he found in the archives of the Securitate documents which prove that Teoctist was an agent of influence, who did propaganda for the Communist regime.

[13] After the session of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church the date of burial was set for Friday 3 August 2007 at 11:00 (GMT+2) and took place at the Patriarchal Cathedral.

Taking part in the funeral itself were representatives from the churches of Constantinople, Albania, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Finland, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Greece, Cyprus, Poland and the Czech Republic.