The Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral claims that the police visited the temples today and asked the priests to close them without any order.
The Police Administration did not respond to Vijesta's questions as to whether and on whose orders they are asking the priests of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral to close churches and monasteries.
The question sent to the National Coordination Body remained unanswered.
"On a day when the entire Christian world is staring at the Jerusalem Temple, where God sent the Blessed Fire this year as a sign of his visible and tangible presence, the Montenegrin police are putting pressure on the clergy throughout Montenegro to shut down, despite the agreement and valid regulations, and without a written order temples, even though, according to them, there is not a single regulation that the faithful and the clergy have broken all these days", Podgorica parish priest Nikola Pejović told "Vijesta".
He believes that this is an anti-civilizational act, that "it is not the path of unity and solidarity that the government is calling us to take, but the path of torture, selective justice and a renewed attempt to humiliate the Orthodox Church and its believers, and this is on the eve of the biggest and most joyful holiday and the most important event in the history of mankind."
He also reminded that they have already invited the faithful to spend Easter in their homes.
The MCP claim that earlier today, the police visited temples in Podgorica, Pljevlja, Herceg Novi, Nikšić... and asked the priests to close them.
In front of the Church of St. Vasilij Ostroški in Nikšić, the intervention unit legitimized citizens this morning, according to priest Slobodan Jokić.
"There were only three people in the temple and several of them in front, some of whom did not even intend to enter the temple at all, but to walk. The members of the intervention unit came and said that a violation of physical distance had been reported, although they were there all the time there were two inspectors, who confirmed that there were no violations and that no one entered the temple during worship. We closed the temple for about an hour and opened it," he said.
The same thing happened two days ago in Danilovgrad, where the police asked the abbess of the Ždrebaonik Monastery to close the church to the faithful.
"Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear beloved children, we regret to inform you that on these Easter days our monastery and yours will be closed due to human weakness and little faith. The resurrected Lord will grant that we carry this Calvary cross and carry it out and embrace the resurrected Lord and each other", is the inscription that greeted the "Vijesti" team at the monastery gate.
The nuns explained that they had to close the monastery after a warning from the police, who came after a neighbor's report - that believers come during the day to worship the relics of St. Arsenius.
However, by the end of the visit, the inscription had been removed, even though it was stated the day before, representatives of the Danilovgrad police came to the monastery yesterday to explain to the abbess and nuns that it was a misunderstanding.
Bonus video:
