If Bishop Joanikije does not get the support of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, he will get the will to continue on the path of Metropolitan Amfilohije towards Montenegrin-Serbian reconciliation and strengthening the independence of the Metropolis, but - he will not have the power. If he becomes a metropolitan, he will gain power but - he will not have the will...
I was prompted to repeat this passage from the spring column by the address of Metropolitan Ioaniki regarding the protest against his enthronement in Cetinje.
It is not polite to quote myself, forgive me, sin on my soul. The metropolitan sinned much more seriously, showing respect first to a foreign country and then to his own, but he does not seek forgiveness from anyone.
- I love both Serbia and Montenegro, I respect both countries, what more does anyone ask of me - he marveled, pretending not to understand how he had just stated one of the most important causes of the Cetinje protests, thus encouraging their mass and duration.
He was right in one respect, as long as Montenegro is in second/last place for the Montenegrin Metropolitan, no one outside the SPC has anything to ask or expect from him.
Let me not go back a year, to his startling revelation of the "three secrets of the Serbian Golgotha". Of which - after Kosovo and Jasenovac - Montenegro was the third, although in thirty years the number of Serbs in it - tripled...
* * *
- They renounced me, but I, as a shepherd, as a metropolitan, as a man of the Gospel, cannot renounce them. Those are my brothers. This is a people that God entrusted to me and I think that there is a lot of good in them - the metropolitan tried this time with gentle words.
That there is much good in the people, I take his word for it. And how much good he will bring to that nation - well, he will only be able to discuss that with his god when they settle their accounts.
He will also have to settle some accounts with the late Metropolitan Amfilohi. Which, as time goes by, is less and less referred to.
- He suffered like a lamb of God... How could he endure all that, never to say a word. To never condemn his people from Cetinje - asked Metropolitan Joanikije very tenderly, but only in the second half of the public statement.
It is not appropriate for me to go into a posthumous comparison with the lamb of God, but in this case of condemnation I must.
Why should Metropolitan Amfilohija condemn the people of Cetinje? He certainly wouldn't because of the harsh words, he didn't owe them the devil. Because of an even lesser act, the people of Cetinje did not even treat him to what the Metropolis and Metropolitan Joanikije did.
He hadn't even gotten used to the other world, when they in this world canceled everything he had done for the last 15 years. In 1,5 hours, they succeeded in abolishing the Episcopal Council that he created, erasing the name of the Orthodox Church that he baptized, canceling the title of Archbishop of Cetinje that he held, and expelling from the Holy Synod the MCP chair that he fought for.
* * *
In the meantime, it would be good if Metropolitan Joanikije recognized at least the right to his own name to those he calls brothers.
Even better, he would stop trying to convince them that they are what they are not. Taking as a historical source the fact that "one of the Dragović brothers, who were the most learned people in Montenegro at the beginning of the 20th century, nicely said - we are Montenegrins by nationality, and Serbs by nationality".
And it would be best, just like Chojski - after the example of Marko Miljanov whom he likes to quote more than I myself - if he and his church stop forcing Serbianness into Montenegrins by referring to "who were the Petrovićs and where did they come from".
Whoever they were and wherever they came from, they were not our ancestors, but only ruled the country of our ancestors. None of those Petrovićs - apart from Prince Danilo and King Nikola - had their own offspring, and that was for subjective reasons.
Danilo did have one daughter, Nikola nine plus three sons, but for objective reasons this could not be enough for the creation of a nation, even one as small as Montenegrin.
It was almost enough for him to disappear, but that's another and very long sad story...
* * *
- Montenegro is not only Katunska nahija. It's not just Cetinje, Montenegro - it's the only thing that Metropolitan Joanikije and those who came from all Montenegrin regions to protest the announced enthronement could agree on.
An agreement on (or only) the ecclesiastical division of Montenegro will hardly ever be reached, because only the Katun nahija and possibly another...
That's why his call for dialogue - "if they are ready to talk, to tell me that I'm wrong about something, let them come, but I can't shout here in front of the Cetinje monastery" - sounded more than hypocritical.
Who in his right mind would go to his feet after such accusations of "howling, manipulating and messing with his face" and threats that "many manipulated people, eclipsed and abused" will bring the curse upon themselves...
* * *
What could be discussed at all, the metropolitan did not say. But it is what it would never be about:
- I cannot accept that the rhetoric of the great fascist servant and courier of chief Anto Pavelić, the traitor of Sekula Drljević, is spreading in Montenegro. It does not suit Montenegro! Those who fly the banner of anti-fascism have accepted the ideology of the greatest fascist from this area - the cursed Sekula Drljević. What paradoxes, what madness, what shame!
I am not in possession of knowledge where the metropolitan heard that rhetoric, but I do have something that was photographed.
What is it - yes, Sekula Drljević went from a fierce Serbian nationalist to a Montenegrin independentist to an Ustashi collaborator, and in the end he got stuck with the Chetniks.
And yes, he was an associate of the Petrovdan fascist regime in Cetinje in July 1941.
But what a paradox, what madness and what a shame that in all the photos from the hot summer, the first one next to him is Metropolitan Joanikije (Lipovac).
On the first, in color, the "damned fascist servant and Ustasha courier" Sekula Drljević and Metropolitan Joanikije (Lipovac) celebrate the declaration of puppet independent Montenegro under the Italian protectorate with a festive lunch at the Grand Hotel.
On the second, in black and white, you can see how Metropolitan Joanikije (Lipovac) welcomes exactly those occupying fascist troops. Logically, again with Sekula Drljević, only my mouse runs away from the laptop so it is not visible.
I cannot legally publish the third photo, in which Metropolitan Joanikije (Lipovac) is in the middle of the first row of the Petrovdan Cathedral.
The fourth, where he welcomes the Italian king in front of the Cetinje monastery, there is no point in posting - Vittorio Emanuele is so small that he cannot be seen.
I couldn't find the fifth one, it could be that his speech in which he vehemently condemned the XNUMXth of July Uprising was recorded only in written form, without a camera.
* * *
Despite these and all other historical testimonies, Metropolitan Joanikije (Mićović) and his church consider only Sekula Drljević to be cursed.
Metropolitan Joaniki (Lipovac) was canonized as a saint. Or priest-martyrs, I don't really understand church canons, but I understand that they knew what they were doing because the procedure was done without the usual pomp...
Really, what a paradox, what madness, what a shame!
P.S. Sekula Drljević, by the way, was never convicted of war crimes or any other crimes. Dragoljub Mihailović and Ratko Mladić did, the former before a domestic court and the latter before an international court. Drljević's portrait never appeared at any secular or religious protest. The portraits of Mihailović and Mladić were carried at many gatherings attended by Metropolitan Joanikije, but he never called the blatant glorification of war criminals a paradox, madness or shame.
Bonus video:
