Church and believers in the Balkans resist persecution by the Montenegrin government
In all churches of the Serbian Orthodox Church, funeral bells will be rung every two hours until Christmas as a sign of protest against the law adopted in Montenegro, which allows the confiscation of SOC shrines in favor of schismatics loyal to the pro-Western ruling regime.
After the evening services, prayers will be held to the Most Holy Theotokos, who is served in sorrows and temptations.
One of the leaders of the opposition Montenegrin Democratic Front party, Nebojsa Medojevic, said that the adoption of the scandalous law took place in conditions reminiscent of a coup d'etat.
“There was a precedent for police infiltration into parliament. This was a direct attempt and implementation of a coup. All conflicts in parliament are resolved through its internal control and negotiations, and only in Montenegro is it resolved through harsh police arrests and detentions. Yesterday there was a real coup in parliament, the police junta is now solving problems in parliament,” Medojevic said.
The strategic plan for protecting the rights of the dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro was proposed by lawyer Vladan Bozic from Podgorica in collaboration with other lawyers and received the blessing of the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Irinej.
“This is not an ordinary law, but an illegal freak. He exposes the intentions of the wicked against the Church of St. Sava. Adequate legal actions are now being taken to ensure that this corrupt plan is not carried out,” Bozic said.
A mass rally against the anti-Orthodox law took place in Niksic, where there were clashes with security forces.
At the same time, an employee of the Niksic Security Center, Miloje Šcepanovic, resigned after 30 years of service because he “did not want to participate in actions against citizens.”
Not only believers, but also representatives of the priesthood suffered in the protests. Bishop Methodius of Diokleia, who was beaten on the bridge over the Tara River in Montenegro, was hospitalized at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade.
On Friday night, the Montenegrin parliament passed a law by a majority vote allowing the authorities to confiscate monasteries and churches of the Serbian Church in favor of a controlled autocephalous schismatic pseudo-church structure.
This decision sparked mass protests across the country. There were no votes against or abstentions in parliament, since the document was considered after the police detained all opposition deputies.
Mass protests are taking place in the cities of Berane, Bijelo Polje, Pljevlja, Podgorica, Bar, Budva, Kotor, Niksic. Over 55 people were detained, including opposition deputies. The Metropolis of the Montenegrin-Primorsky SOC reported that on the Djurdjevica Tara Bridge in the north of the country, police at night during a protest “cruelly beat Bishop Methodius and the believers who defended him with batons and kicked them.”
Earlier, President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic said that he would seek autocephaly for the “Montenegrin church” following the example of Ukraine. There are 650 shrines under threat of being handed over to schismatics, including the Ostrog monastery, widely known in the Orthodox world.
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