MCP: The church that Đukanović calls CPC was never autocephalous

The Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral is not against the adoption of the new Law on Freedom of Religion, but it is and will be against the unilateral activities of the Montenegrin authorities in this matter, the MCA announced.

The president of the country Milo Đukanović, as they said, knows that the law, as it is now, is "directed against the Orthodox Church".

"It's an open secret and he doesn't hide it in the interview, which we're reacting to," the MCP announced.

Đukanović said in an interview for N1 television that the SPC opposes the proposed law because it wants to preserve what it stole from Montenegro.

"President Đukanović is right that the issue of freedom of religion concerns state stability, democratic organization and overall Montenegrin identity. That is why it was important that he and the Government of Montenegro primarily made an effort to conduct the widest possible consultations with all relevant entities (all of them will to agree that the Orthodox Church is the most important here, because the Law applies to it to the greatest extent) and that in such a process a consensus acceptable to all is reached, which is in accordance with the Constitution of Montenegro, but also with all international documents that regulate the issue of freedom religious denominations. The Metropolis, for the umpteenth time, repeats that it is not against the adoption of a new law, but it is and will be against the unilateral activities of the Montenegrin authorities in this matter. President Đukanović knows that the law, as it is now, is directed against the Orthodox Church. is an open secret and he does not hide it in the interview, about which we are reacting," the MCP announced.

Đukanović, however, as they add, does not know that the church in Montenegro, "which he mistakenly calls 'CPC', was never autocephalous, nor was it abolished by the decree of regent Aleksandar Karađorđević."

"That manipulation has become so widespread that it is used as a postman's stick, and it is a brutal untruth. Regent Alexander only, as the then sovereign of the Kingdom of SHS, accepted the decision of all the archbishops (including, in the first place, those archbishops from Montenegro, by the decision of the Holy Synod in the Kingdom of Montenegro) who of their own volition, without a vote against, restored the Peć Patriarchate - under the name of the Serbian Patriarchate, which was enthusiastically accepted by both the clergy and the faithful people in Montenegro, and church life continued in full continuity. Even The government-in-exile in "Glas Crnogorca" welcomed the restoration of the Patriarchate, only complaining that its seat was in Belgrade, and not in the Patriarchate of Peć, where King Nikola appointed Gavrilo Dožić as the first metropolitan of Peć in 1913, after the abolition of the Patriarchate (1766). The president's hope that the Patriarchate of Constantinople will recognize the autocephaly of the Church in Montenegro is in vain. To whom should he recognize it? To a man who was dismissed from the Synod of the same Patriarchate? That, first and foremost, should not be the concern of the president of a secular state, who is also a publicly declared unbaptized atheist. If for him religious issues are "trikes and hogs", it would be polite if he at least does not get involved in them," the announcement states.

Đukanović, as they said, has the right to express his opinion, "however wrong and unfounded", but he has no right to use institutional state mechanisms to, as they said, settle accounts with the Church and make it conform to himself and his ideology or make new "churches".

"Patriarch Irinej, as well as Metropolitan Amfilohije, but also all the faithful, as free people and citizens, on the other hand, have the right to determine themselves according to the moves of the government, but they certainly do not have any institutional mechanisms with which they could influence the arrangement of the state order , electing the president or the government. In other words, the one who has the power and power of the state would have to refrain from attacking people who have none of that, and only use the word. That would be Choj and Montenegrin. After all, the president should decide - whether the Metropolitanate committed a crime against Montenegro or whether it has, as he says in a letter to the blessed Patriarch Pavlo, "significance for Montenegro and a historical role in the struggle for the freedom of Montenegrin, Serbian and other Balkan peoples". It should be added that "It is dishonest to start the story of the Orthodox Church from 1918 and to keep silent about the fact that Saint Sava founded four bishoprics eight centuries ago on its present-day territory of Montenegro, which still have their jurisdiction here today," the MC states.

Even less, they said, is the correct conclusion that the president draws from the "alleged autocephaly of the 'CPC'" - that its assets were state-owned.

"In Serbia, unlike in Montenegro, there was an Orthodox Church from the end of the nineteenth century, which was autocephalous by a tomos obtained from the Ecumenical Patriarchate (1879) and, look at the miracle, its property was not owned by the state then, nor is it now (although some repeat the falsehood that church property in Serbia is owned by the state as well). The fact that there were certain restrictions on the disposal of property, since the Orthodox Church was the state religion and the state was Christian, does not mean that the state was the owner of that property. in order to preserve the historical church identity in Montenegro, the Church is obliged to resist those who change it and want to subjugate the Church with their new secular ideologies and new identity. Should the Metropolis and all others renounce their founder in these areas - Saint Sava , to be eligible? Should she renounce Saint Vasilij Ostroski, who was ordained by the Serbian Patriarch of Peć, or Saint Peter of Cetinje, who was ordained by the Serbian Patriarch of Karlovac? To despise the letter of Metropolitan Sava Petrović, who wrote to Metropolitan Platon of Moscow "of all the Slavic-Serbian archbishops" or that of the young Archimandrite Peter Petrović, the latter Saint Peter of Cetinje, addressed to the Austrian court, in which he, Governor Ivan Radonjić and Serdar Ivan Petrović say that they want that "the Metropolitan of Montenegro depends on the Patriarch of Pec in Serbia", so they add that they will send him to Karlovci for ordination, but only "as long as the Turks rule Serbia, so we cannot freely send him to Pec." To erase from memory the "Ode to Nemanja" of Metropolitan Vasilij Petrović and the inscription on his grave in Petrograd - "Exarch of the Patriarchal Serbian Throne" or that, some fools today in Montenegro, we erase from the church calendar Saint Sava, his father Simeon and Saint Stefan Dečanski, that the masters of Zeta Crnojević stamped in the first printed calendars of Montenegro? They would, I guess, be in line with the president's view of Montenegrin identity, if they despised the words of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Montenegro Dr. Lazar Tomanović, uttered during the proclamation of Montenegro as a kingdom (1910): "On top of that, the Metropolis of Cetinje is the only Episcopal See of Saint Sava, which has been preserved without interruption to this day..." There is a sea of ​​such examples that the Church would have to renounce in order to become what the president envisioned - a servant of the ideological interests of his party and his like-minded people," the announcement reads.

The Church, as they say, will not be the servant of either Montenegro or Serbia, or Serbia or Montenegro, or any ideology or any large-state project, or protect someone's "infrastructure" - because it would no longer be the Church.

"But he cannot forget what the best in its history said and did and that, according to his powers, he imitates them, in words and deeds, in the defense of the holy places and his two-thousand-year-old existence. The president mentions that in the 90s, someone unauthorized registered as the owner of the church property - alluding to the Metropolis and other bishoprics of the Serbian Patriarchate in Montenegro - and says that this is a seizure of valuable property and a crime against Montenegro. Again a failure. The president is not telling the truth on this matter. How could the Church seize its property ? Who is the victim of that crime that the president mentions? What the president says and does in this matter is unfortunate. After all, not all of us have such a short memory. Were he and his party at that time the bearers of the same state powers that they have now? Another inconsistency can be noticed in this speech of the president. After the privatization of everything and everything, including property taken from the Church and religious communities after the Second World War, by which the state admitted that it was unable to adequately manage its resources and property, nationalization is planned - no less and no more - but the remains of church property, and even more than that - its temples! They would come, God forbid, to a situation where everything is private property in this secular state, except for "state" religious buildings," reads the statement of the MCP.

They wonder what the state will do with the religious buildings, what the state will do with them and why it is taking them away, if it does not plan to give them to someone else.

"The intention of the president and all those who participate in this dishonorable work is recognized. This intention goes beyond their ideological fathers, who were more reasonable in this matter and did not seize religious buildings. They are classified as even fiercer persecutors of the Church than they were before them. President Đukanović's slander, which marks the Serbian Orthodox Church more as a political than as a religious organization, is terrible and unacceptable. As an unbeliever, he is completely incompetent to appreciate that. The Serbian Orthodox Church is respected and recognized among all Orthodox Churches and is an important part of the universal family The fact that he does not recognize this does not take anything away from the Church, but it speaks volumes about the president's new attitude towards the freedom of the Church", according to the MCP.

It is also untrue, as they point out, the claim that the organization of the Orthodox Church follows the state organization and that anything contrary to that is against canon law.

"Let's take only those local Churches that are the first in the order of the Orthodox Churches: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Moscow Patriarchate - none of them are spread over the territory of one country! Doesn't the recognized Serbian Orthodox Church also exist in the countries created by the former Yugoslavia and across Europe, America, and Australia? Each has its own historical jurisdiction over multiple states. The President has either succumbed to the ignorance of those who advise him on this (who seem to be afflicted with the nasty disease of Nazism or Brozomora) or he is knowingly misleading the public. Whatever is - we advise him that, accusing the Church of politics, he should not deal with the creation of Churches in Montenegro. The President should hear the voice of the Church and the people of God and withdraw the Bill and advocate that, in the name of the unity of our ancestors, who jointly fought for the freedom and future of Montenegro, representatives of the state authorities, the Church and other religious communities, in a true dialogue agreed on a legal act, which will benefit all Montenegrin citizens without distinction. We pray for Montenegro and for the progress of all its citizens without distinction, and we wish the President and all those who support him in this - to give up their predatory intentions and not carry out violence against the Church and religion in general, but to return to love of God and brotherhood. concludes the statement of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral.