Representatives of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church (CPC) called on the state to cancel the decision of the Podgorica Assembly, return church property and stand in the way of erasing Montenegrin ethnic identity.
Prof. Dr. Novak Kilibarda announced at the press conference that Montenegro, after the historic step of restoration of statehood, has not yet resolved one important issue - ensuring the equality of the two Orthodox churches.
He asserted that there are two institutions in Montenegro that undermine any of its cultural and historical recognition: "They are the SPC, headed by Metropolitan Amfilohi, and the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, headed by Momir Đurović."
Every move by Amfilohi, according to Kilibarda, was calculated to erase the Montenegrin ethnic identity: "Every church that was built in his time does not have the architectural style of a typical Montenegrin church, but has a Moravian style. There was no icon of Saint Sava in any Montenegrin monastery, and Amfilohije has now avenged all the monasteries of Montenegro".
The state should, as he said, resolve issues that were closed at the Podgorica Assembly in 1918, when the Montenegrin state was abolished, and in the decree of King Alexander from 1920, when the Montenegrin church was abolished: "The decisions of the Podgorica Assembly and the decree of King Alexander should to be annulled".
Historian Novak Adžić repeated that the property of the CPC was "occupied": "One must stand in the way of the robbery that, for ideological and political reasons, is undertaken by the SPC, which is here to collapse the foundations of Montenegrin state freedom and national identity."
He emphasized that everything Montenegrin has been denied for decades, with the aim of "achieving enormous material and financial profit by renting out what historically does not belong to it": "SPC is not the holder of sacred Orthodox assets, the largest part of which is declared and protected as a cultural monument , the real holder is the Montenegrin state".
Adžić also recalled the situation from a few years ago, when documents were leaked to the public in which it was seen that the SPC magically revised the cadastral books and transferred property to its organizational units: "In the cadastral title deeds, those who are not the owners of the rights were registered, who cannot prove the legal basis and method of acquisition that would be sustainable".
Lawyer Željko Tomović emphasized that there are elements of crime in the relationship and actions of the SOC against the state of Montenegro, which should be dealt with by the state prosecutor.
A state secret who were the armed persons in the Cetinje monastery
Tomović also recalled an event from a few years ago when priests and supporters of the CPC wanted to enter the Cetinje monastery and perform a religious ceremony there, and the police prevented them from doing so, explaining that they could not enter because there were armed persons with a criminal past inside.
"The official explanation given at the time by police director Veselin Veljović was that there were armed persons with a criminal past in the Cetinje monastery. At that moment, the police took the side of those armed persons, and prevented their citizens from peacefully performing a religious ceremony," said Tomović.
From then until today, as he said, the procedure for determining the responsibility of the persons who issued the order and who carried it out has not been completed: "The Council for Civil Control of Police Work is powerless because the police claim that it is a state secret who these persons were in the Cetinje Monastery ".
The Montenegrin church is barely surviving
Adžić called on all "well-intentioned Montenegrin identity-conscious and state-building forces to help the CPC, which is in a difficult existential situation not by its own will, but by assault and harangue against it."
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the CPC, which in previous years received state aid in the amount of about 90.000 euros annually, through individual requests to the General Secretariat of the Government, received only 2012 euros for the first six months of 17.000.
"That is not enough for a church that has not been given back its temples to survive," said the interlocutor of "Vijesti".
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