Negotiations between the government of Montenegro and the SOC have reached a dead end
Prime Minister of Montenegro Dusko Markovic, after two days of negotiations with representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church in this country, was forced to admit that they did not bring results.
The SOC in Montenegro did not like the fact that the Montenegrin regime, while softening certain wordings of the discriminatory “Law on Freedom of Religion,” treated them as an alien element.
“During the second round of expert negotiations, we came to the following decisions: firstly, that the procedure for registering land cadastral records from administrative proceedings will be transferred to judicial proceedings, where the burden of proving ownership falls on the state, and not on the church,” said Markovich. – Secondly, the Serbian Orthodox Church will continue to use church and monastic properties, estates and other real estate that are state property or are recognized in court proceedings as state, religious and cultural values.
And in this regard, we proposed a completely new article of the law, which clearly excluded the possibility that religious objects could be used by any religious community, except for the Montenegrin-Litovian Metropolis and other dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro. Thirdly, the proposed changes will be adopted by the government at a meeting and then approved by parliament by the end of this month.”
At the same time, according to Markovic, the government’s only requirement for the SOC was the registration of all churches and religious communities, as well as the Serbian Orthodox Church and its dioceses “according to the letter of the law.”
“Registration, which was an obligation and in accordance with previous legislation. Registration as it is regulated by all civilized and democratic societies. Unfortunately, the church refused this,” Markovic added.
The SOC in Montenegro explained its refusal to register:
“The expert council ignored the decision of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church of May 26, 2006 - the highest church body, which, under the chairmanship of the late Patriarch Paul, recognizing the renewed independence of Montenegro, actually emphasized the traditional continuity of the subjectivity of the ancient current metropolis and dioceses of the SOC from Zetskaya metropolitanate (Medieval Serbian metropolitanate, located on the territory of present-day Montenegro).
The above-mentioned decision was officially transmitted to the then President of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic, in December 2006. It is humiliating to give the church an ultimatum to register again and again as a kind of newly formed religious community acquiring legal subjectivity. And this is for a church that has been recognized and recognized by all powers, even occupying ones, throughout the centuries and to this day.”
In turn, publicist Jovan Marcus published on his Facebook profile a list of less than twenty religious organizations in Montenegro, which are not required to register as SOCs. It turned out that this list includes all other confessions of the country: Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, as well as pseudo-Orthodox schismatics - the Montenegrin Orthodox Church is anathema to Miraš Dedeić and his former child, and now the “primate” of the Orthodox Church of Montenegro, Lav Lajović.
In the title photo: Dusko Markovic and Metropolitan of Montenegro and Primorsky (SOC) Amfilohije.
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