The municipality of Kotor will not file objections, but will support the conclusion of an out-of-court settlement that will correct decades of injustice and finally honor the donor's will that part of the land on which the local cemetery in Prčanj is located be returned to the Kotor Diocese, i.e. Prčanj Parish.
In this way, the state will treat the Roman Catholic Church in the same way as it does the Montenegrin Littoral Metropolitanate, where the Orthodox part of the Prčany cemetery was already registered along with the chapel of St. Peter of Cetinje.
"When the new parish church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in Prčanje in the 19th century, the local Đurović family donated a larger plot of land to the diocese on the southeast side of the church for the construction of a new parish cemetery. The Đurović family chapel was first built there, and later the entire cemetery for all the other believers of Prčanj Parish and residents of Prčanj from that era. Due to a combination of historical circumstances, that cemetery was later taken from the Church and the state and the Municipality of Kotor took it over. On that occasion, the unique plot from the old cadastre was divided into two parts - one that includes the cemetery and the other that is now a green area", said the priest of Prčany, don Željko Pasković.
In the meantime, the former church cemetery and the plot of land donated to the diocese by the Đurovići fell under the jurisdiction of the Prčanj Local Community, which managed it and charged the burial fee to the families of the citizens who were buried there, as well as to those whose ancestors rest in the new municipal cemetery built in the meantime. next to the Prčan chapel. However, the entire cemetery, and especially the green area next to it, were not maintained nearly as well as it should have been, so the part of this area towards the Church of the Virgin was often covered with large amounts of garbage that no one cleaned. By the way, in the part of the cemetery that belonged to the Prčanj Parish, there are about 60 graves that belong, for the most part, to indigenous Catholic families from that place.
Reverend Pasković said that, when he became familiar with the former state of affairs and the will of the donor, he initiated the procedure to return this and some other properties to Župa Prčanj. This implied the initiation of court proceedings against the state and the Municipality of Kotor, where the former church cemetery in Prčanje is now registered, but according to Don Pasković, the Municipality of Kotor has meanwhile expressed its understanding of the demands of the Diocese and expressed its readiness not to oppose the further course of the proceedings returning that immovable property to its rightful owner.
"I am pleasantly surprised by the reception and reaction of the municipal authorities, especially the Vice President of the Municipality of Kotor Siniša Kovačevića who promised us that if everything is legally resolved and undisputed, there will be no problems or obstructions on the part of the Municipality to return the cemetery to the ownership and management of the Prčanj Parish. This is something that is very important to the believers of Prčanj Parish, because their ancestors lie in that cemetery, and I hope that we will soon finish it formally", said Pasković.
He explained that the court proceedings for the return of this property are already in progress and that the findings of the court experts are awaited, but that after the positive reaction of the Municipality of Kotor, he hopes that everything will end relatively quickly with an out-of-court settlement.
"This will actually give back to the people here what is theirs, and we as a parish will have the opportunity to maintain and arrange this part of the land complex that was bequeathed to the Church by the Đurović family in a much more appropriate way than has been the case so far," he said. is Pasković.
He said that on the currently unused part of that plot, the Church will arrange and make several more new burial places for which there is an urgent need of the locals.
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