Perović: As citizens, we fight to pass good laws

March 1, 2020, 21:02 p.m

Bishop Atanasije of the Milešev eparchy led the procession through the streets of Pljevlja.

With the clergy of the Church Municipality of Pljevlja, he previously served a prayer service in the Church of Saint Petka in Pljevlja.

Lithia to the only city church was also organized from the monastery of the Holy Trinity, which is about three kilometers from the city center.

At Hotel Pljevlja, a statement was read from the Pljevlja Committee for the Protection of Sacred Sites, which called on the former executive director of Rudnik Uglja Vuk Roćen to return the Order of Saint Sava, which was awarded to him by the Serbian Orthodox Church, because he put his signature on, as stated, "fascist reaction" to current events in Montenegro by members of the Movement for an Independent European Montenegro.

"A man who until yesterday presented himself and was considered an Orthodox Christian, with a group of respected and mostly rejected like-minded people, put his name under the most heinous insults against the Serbian Orthodox Church, its clergy, the believing people, and against his fellow citizens. It was he, who was always smiling from the front row, Vuk Roćen, who was open-handed when the coffers of the Coal Mine needed to help rebuild and build shrines, told us that protest rallies and prayers in Montenegro are a "clero-nationalist campaign", "popish hysteria" and "Great Serbian attack", and that all this confirms the need for the existence of an autocephalous Montenegrin Orthodox Church. When did you lie to the Church and when did you lie to the Vuče Ročena Party? Or have you always played a double game with both? Anyway, you overplayed your hand with the Church...", according to the announcement of the Committee, which was read by one of the priests.

The committee called on Roćen to return the order, "because it is better to do it yourself than to have it taken away from you as unworthy, which you certainly confirmed unequivocally with your last act".

The board also told the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, that with his last statements he made to Reuters, he wants to tear apart the Orthodox entity of Montenegro and push the citizens into mutual conflicts.

"It is precisely in this function that he mentions the bloody wars of the nineties and Slobodan Milošević and Serbia as their alleged sole inspirer, while he forgets his own role. Such a scenario would enable the Montenegrin despot to spend a few more years on the throne, and in the end, Orthodoxy would be marginalized and reduced to a pseudo-religious phenomenon, while the Serbs in the near future in Montenegro would represent only statistical data of little significance," the Board's announcement states.

Priest Nikola Pejović, editor-in-chief of Radio Svetigora, also addressed the gathering.

Litija in Pljevlje **author:** Goran Malidjan

Litija from the Holy Trinity Monastery **author:** News reader

March 1, 2020, 20:54 p.m

After the prayer service, which was held in the temple of Saint Vasilij Oštroški in Nikšić, the citizens started a prayer walk to Freedom Square, led by the MCP clergy and monks.

The Rector of the Cetinje Theological Seminary, Gojko Perović, told those gathered on the Square that the processions are at the same time peaceful civil protests.

"The reason for our litias and this gathering is our desire to show everyone, both the authorities of this country and all citizens, that a very bad law has been passed and is being prepared for implementation, which, in this rain, if not all the bricks and boards on the installed on the roof, our house in Montenegro can 'leak' just because of that law. That's why we gathered like a mob so that all the boards and bricks, every stone of our house, are in their place. That's how a real host works. It's not what they tell us that we are working against Montenegro, but it is that we, as citizens of this country, and the majority of us both in depth and in breadth, Montenegrins by birth and origin and place of residence, we make sure that there is no such law that abolishes something for some, and he allows others to do the same," said Perović.

According to him, the people are concerned that there is no such law, according to which the laws passed before the Law on Freedom of Religion are not valid.

"We do it because we are literate, we do it because we know how to add two and two are four, we do it even without any story because something tells us from our heart and soul, our ancestors whose genes we were born with, and we think and see and listen, our ancestors who first started reading the Bible and who know that there is something greater than earthly treasures and earthly standards, those ancestors and those genes do not allow us to stand with peace when someone tries to turn the church into a state enterprise. and that we are Switzerland, and even that we are America where companies are doing well, we know that every earthly thing has its beginning and end, and that is why our Montenegrin rulers and all the rulers of this world always knew that the sacred should be preserved and that every temple and place of worship should be given autonomy not to depend on the state authorities for its arrangement," said the rector of the Cetinje seminary.

As he said, the church is not against the passing of the law, but for the past 20 years, "it has been begging for a law to be passed that will regulate the relations between the state and the church, so that there is nothing unclear". As he pointed out, citizens have the right to say freely what they think about their sanctuaries and about some law that is not good.

"Where can you have greater concern for our common home, Montenegro, than to fight as citizens to pass good laws," said Perović.

Fasting is an opportunity, as he pointed out, for a person from time to time to "step out of ordinary life into the desert of prayer."

"As you have heard, our good brother, the President of Montenegro, says that he does not think of giving up, and that there are even more of us. We should pray to God that God enlightens the mind of our President to see that we are just as Montenegrin as he and that we love Montenegro as much as he loves it. Not to mention that maybe there are some who love it even more than him, even if he has been president a hundred times," said Perović.

As he said, the people must not let anything divert them from the path of prayer and love and hope that "after the prayer walk and fasting of 40 days forand a more beautiful Montenegro, without the miracles of this law, to create a more beautiful and better law that does not "leak", without divisions because we are all brothers and sisters, citizens of Montenegro."

"We are leaving everything that divides us behind because Jesus Christ was resurrected to save every soul. We will not force ourselves, whoever believes believes, whoever does not believe and does not have to believe. But long ago people agreed that in one territory, where there are believers and non-believers that there must be one law that everyone adheres to... Even though they push us into stories that have nothing to do with us, we go to litias because a law has been passed that does not exist anywhere else. , but this law is not something we are proud of. That's why we are patient, we pray to God and we say to the president and the ruler - may God help you, but we will not give up, because we know civil rights and that this faith left to us by our ancestors is sacred which we leave to posterity, because it has always been known, for God's sake, for the emperor's, and this very law violates that regulation and says that the emperor wants both God's and the emperor's. So let's help him, so that he doesn't burden himself, let the politicians run their business, and let the saints remain a shrine," said Perović.

Tonight in Nikšić **author:** Svetlana Mandic

March 1, 2020, 19:16 p.m

The liturgy was also organized in Bar tonight, and the liturgy was served in the Church of St. John Vladimir.

Priest Slobodan Zeković congratulated those gathered on the beginning of fasting and on behalf of the clergy thanked all those who, as he said, are fighting for the holy places.

"Tonight and those who speak badly against us, who are currently given power in Montenegro, who caused all this confusion by passing this shameful law, we also say to them that, as far as we are concerned, they have been extended the hand of brotherly love and reconciliation , but we also tell them what we did in the past days - we will not allow our sanctuaries to be desecrated and our holy church to be humiliated," Zeković said.

Crmnica parish priest Slobodan Lukić, who led the procession in Bar, said that processions are "a great blessing from God."

"How blessed they are can be seen in your faces. We will not see anyone in the procession with a gloomy face, someone who will say an ugly word, make some grumpy movement, on the contrary, all your faces radiate and shine with hints of the great victory that we are all staring at." he said.

He added that liturgies are "a great school of concord and unity."

"We are all one and that is why we are not counted, and let those who like to be counted, let them count us if they care. We are not a number, we are a church," said Lukić.

Tonight at the Bar **author:** News reader

March 1, 2020, 19:05 p.m

The people of Kolasin demonstrated their disagreement with the adoption of the Law on Freedom of Religion with another rally, which is organized in that city on Sundays.

With icons in their hands, with spiritual songs, the citizens, after the prayer, went along the usual route from the church of St. Dimitrije, then through the streets of Milivoje Bulatović, December 29, Boško Rašović, July 13, across two town squares, next to the Memorial House...

Their fellow citizens Marko Medojević, Milan Rondović and Mihailo Čolovi, during the weekend, as a sign of solidarity with the participants of the lithium in Montenegro, walked from Kolašin to Žabljak. The young men started in front of the church of St. Dimitri on the night between Friday and Saturday. They walked a 110 kilometer long road, with several short breaks.

"This litany of ours is support and solidarity with all those who are demonstrating their disagreement with the adoption of the Law on Freedom of Religion by marching these days. Also, our way of showing our attitude and what our values are," said Medojević before departure.

Tonight in Kolašin **author:** Dragana Šćepanović

March 1, 2020, 18:48 p.m

Citizens also gathered tonight in front of the St. Sava temple in Tivat, where a prayer service was held before the liturgy.

This afternoon, before the prayer service, several hundred citizens walked in an organized column along a five-kilometer long route from the monastery of St. Michael the Archangel on Prevlaka to the church of St. Sava in Tivat.

The parish priest from Tivat, Petar Petrović, told the gathered people that "he is the flower of Montenegro and the pride of the clergy of the Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral" and called on all those present to be calm, dignified and persistent in "defending the holy places."

Litija marched through the streets of Tivat with spiritual songs and cheers "We don't give away the holy things."

King Nikola's song "Onamo 'namo", as well as the song "Sviće, sviće sjūnja zora" by the group Beogradski sindikat, are played from the loudspeakers of the car following the column.

Litija also stopped in front of the Tivat Municipality building. The column returned to the church of St. Sava, where the gathered dispersed peacefully.

From the litia in Tivat **author:** Siniša Luković

March 1, 2020, 18:44 p.m

After litia that started from Voljavac, Bistrica, Sutivan, Vraneška dolina and other parts of the Bjelopolje municipality, a prayer service was held in the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

Around 16:XNUMX p.m., a procession led by horsemen arrived from the Vraneška valley, led by Ilija Rmandić, who wore a Montenegrin costume. After the prayer, a large protest procession started to the church of St. Nicholas in Nikoljec.

Addressing the faithful in front of the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Archpriest Zoran Bubanja said that "we are in a Sunday when we should forgive everyone."

From the litter in Bijelo Polje **author:** Jadranka Ćetković

March 1, 2020, 18:37 p.m

Bishop Joanikije of Budamiljanska-Nišići accused the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, of using the rhetoric of Ustasha ideologue Anto Pavelić.

After the prayer service at the Đurđevi stupovi monastery in Berane, he told the gathered believers and citizens that they are all participants in the history that is being written, "from this ninety-nine-year-old old man Nova Marković, to these children, to whom the future belongs, not to those who use rhetoric Anto Pavelić".

"With that rhetoric, Hitler's servant Ante Pavelić investigated and killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, and here, unfortunately, that rhetoric gains momentum through the President of Montenegro. And we respond to that stupid and outmoded story that we are both Serbs and Montenegrins as much, maybe a little less, but no more than Njegoš, King Nikola, Marko Miljanov, Mojsije Zečević, Duke Miljan and all our ancestors who died for the honorable cross and golden freedom," said Joanikije.

He said that when the Parliament of Montenegro voted "this anti-civilization law, we had nothing left but to convene this great national assembly, which has been in session for two months".

"We are only fighting for freedom of religion, for the law, for a better order in Montenegro. Montenegro and its future cannot be built on the discrimination of the holy Orthodox faith and the theft of holy places. We will not allow that. We want freedom of religion, we want to be equal with other religions and peoples in Montenegro, nothing more and nothing less. We will not allow our church and our faith to be discriminated against. That is our vow. We swore to protect the holy places, to fight for freedom of religion until the end. We will endure and we will win. May brotherly love and harmony prevail, may truth and justice prevail. May God's blessing be poured out on all of you and on Montenegro, so that it will be a state of truth and justice, law, honesty and freedom of all religions and all peoples in Montenegro." , said Bishop Joanikije.

Believers and citizens of Gornji Polimlje, Murina and Andrijevica, some villages from the area of Bjelopolje municipality, as well as all local centers from the area of Berane, came to Berane today for the central procession.

The processions united into one at the roundabout near the bus station, from where the single procession went to the Đurđevi stupovi monastery.

The liturgy and prayer took place in the best order.

Today in Berane **author:** Tufik Softić

March 1, 2020, 18:31 p.m

People from Piv today attended the prayer service that was held in the church of St. John the Baptist in Plužine.

In front of the church, the abbot of the Zagrađe monastery, Lazar, spoke, who said that tonight's liturgy is a prelude to the great fast, but also the "struggle" that they have been fighting for the sake of their existence for two months. As he said, the fight will be intensified because the people who have been "begging for two months to come to their senses are not showing that they will do it."

"We ask God and each other for forgiveness, for all the bad things we have done to each other in thoughts, words and actions," said Lazar.

After the prayer, the people of Piv, carrying icons, candles, as well as church flags, went through the streets of the town, and the procession was led by the local clergy and monks, led by the abbots of Pivski and Zagrađe monasteries, Jeftimij and Lazar, the parish priest of Plužina, priest Miroslav Mihailović and the archimandrite of Kiev cave larvae, by Peter Petrić.

From the litter in Plužine **author:** Svetlana Mandic

Perović: As citizens, we fight to pass good laws

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