Metropolitan Joanikije of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Montenegrin and Littoral awarded the honor to the former judge and president of the Constitutional Court, Milorad Gogić.
He was awarded the Order of Saint Peter the Second Lovcen Secret of the First Degree, the highest award of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral. On December 4, Joanikije celebrated the liturgy in the church in Gornji Ostrog.
In a statement on the MCP website, it is written that Gogić "distributed justice as prescribed by the laws of this country, and not under the influence of any politics and earthly powers" and that "in his service of justice, he was guided by divine and human laws."
Gogić is currently engaged as an expert associate in the cabinet of the President of the Assembly Andrija Mandić.
"It is always enough for us that justice is applied and that everyone is equal, and it has not been equal for a long time. Only the Serbian Orthodox Church could not get a basic contract for many years, while other churches and religious communities got it without any problems. And that ominous law that was passed in the Parliament of Montenegro under the pressure of the regime at that time, it was passed only to be applied to the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and other dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, because all other religions had regulated their position through fundamental contract. "God gave and Saint Vasilije Ostroški, and that sinister law remained a dead letter on paper and returned like a boomerang to those who devised it and who enacted it in such an inhuman and dishonorable way," said Joanikije.
He says that after that, a law was passed by which the SPC "received what other religious communities also received" and that, "although it is not ideal, it is acceptable for this time" and is not harmful to any religious community, not even to the SPC. He said that after that an atmosphere was created so that the basic contract would not be signed.
"However, there were smart people who made an effort, whom the bishop thanked, including the Prime Minister at the time, who signed the basic contract with Serbian Patriarch Porfirije," the MCP statement reads.
"One more and final step was missing, for everything we did earlier to be confirmed in the Constitutional Court, because various groups had risen up to dispute it all." They did not stand up against any fundamental contract, but many groups stood up against the contract with the Serbian Orthodox Church, and even, I regret to say this today, the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts. But that opinion did not go through the regular procedure, but it was also passed illegally, so that shame does not fall on the entire Academy, but certain people have certainly fallen on this shame and it will not be washed away so easily", said Joanikije.
Although, he says, everything was harmonized with the Constitution and laws of Montenegro, so that the SPC "would be equal with other religious communities, even that was not certain when it came to the Constitutional Court, because there was pressure and subterfuge".
"Mr. Mićo Gogić did everything to ensure that the principles of the Constitution and the law were applied in other cases as well as to the Basic Agreement between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the State of Montenegro. That is why we are grateful to Mr. To Milorad Mić Gogić, who was a man in his place at that moment, as he was, of course, before. And God granted that just in his time, when he was the president of the Constitutional Court, the justice of God would come to light and that we would get one certainty and that all the misunderstandings between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the state of Montenegro would be resolved. Thank you for being a man among men, of course you had an education, but you also had the courage to apply justice and the law as it should be, because you were, we know, under great pressure to make it all different," said Joanikije and concluded:
"And as you can see, we did not take the Ostrog monastery to Šumadija, nor did we occupy Montenegro, but we are where we have been for centuries, and we do not intend to go anywhere from here. And we think that the Church that created so many sanctuaries, raised them to the glory of God and restored them in the new era, that in recent times built cathedrals that are the pride of the cities of Podgorica, Bar and Beran, and decorated everything anew as much as she could, that it only works for the good of Montenegro, both for its present and for its future. Of course, taking great care not to falsify our history, because for all that we have, our ancestors shed their blood and laid their heads on the altar of the homeland."
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