"It doesn't do us any good if there is trouble between the brothers, neither the church gate nor the church nor the icon nor the cross... we don't do anything if brother hates brother" - said Gojko Perović, rector of the Cetinje seminary, tonight in Kolašin during a lecture which was organized by the Church Committee of the Church of Saint Demetrius.
"Every government changes, but only God is eternal. They say "that Montenegro is eternal", they say "that Serbia is eternal"... What is eternal are these holy places. Only the shrines remain. For me, there is also a mosque that I don't go to worship. That other people's faith is sacred to me, which I would not tarnish with anything, but I defend my own," he says.
Perović said that "where he cannot pray to God in peace, he does not need that country, even if it is a hundred times Serbian and Montenegrin." He also said that one can reach the goal only with patience, faith and love. He also said that he "will not have conflicts and arguments".
"How can they say that Serbs and Montenegrins will quarrel, when I can't even separate it. If someone were to offer me all the treasures of the world, and then say let's separate the Serb from the Montenegrin", I would say "thank you, I don't know that". That's all combined for me. There are people who have separated and I say let it be separated and we can live next to each other. We will not go to church because someone is a Serb and someone is a Montenegrin. We go to church because we believe in God," Perović said.
The measures that were adopted in order to fight against the coronavirus were adopted, he claims, "without having any basis in the law". There is a law on the protection of the population during epidemics, explained Perović, "which states that public gatherings are prohibited during epidemics."
"If there is no epidemic, public gatherings are allowed. The last time they prescribed that only 200 people could be on the streets, that is nowhere... That order is a by-law, and a by-law cannot be older than the law, which says either there is a public gathering or there is not... We have talked so far. we will respect all measures. If this evil returns, we will respect the measures that are in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of this country. It is not possible to prescribe measures that "can be seen from Mars" that they are not against the virus, but a measure against God's people going out to pray" - claims the rector of the Cetinje seminary.
Perović said that "he will not respect those measures that are written in such a way that no one alive understands them and that bring confusion and trouble among people." Commenting on the fact that the police forbade the litia, which was planned for Sunday in Kolašin, he advised the people of Kolašin to gather "the shadow of the church".
"When we gather there, according to the laws of this country, it is not a public gathering but a religious ceremony. If a policeman comes to ask, we will say that we pray to God and for that there is a church shadow, which has a cross on the gate, and whoever enters the church shadow there is a prayer... Who is it that wants to separate the 199th from 201st. Let the police deal with it... Here I am the first 201st, we are all 201st..." - said Perović.
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