Fear of Orthodox unity: Montenegro did not allow believers from Serbia and Bosnia to enter
Montenegrin law enforcement officers did not allow pilgrimage groups from Serbia and Republika Srpska (part of Bosnia and Herzegovina) to enter the country to join the procession in honor of Simeon the Myrrh-Streamer.
Balkan media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Information that Montenegrin security forces intend to prevent the entry of believers from Serbia and Republika Srpska (RS) into the country became known on the eve of the religious procession, which took place on February 29.
“We will not allow organized groups that arrive on buses or minibuses to penetrate,” Montenegrin publication Pobeda quoted a law enforcement source who wished to remain anonymous. “The security assessment is that they are not allowed to enter our country.”
The religious procession on the day of memory of Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming took place in the capital of Montenegro - Podgorica, and about 100 thousand believers took part in it. Along with Metropolitan of Montenegro and Primorsky Amfilohiy Radovich, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Onufriy Berezovsky (UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate) took part in it.
Simeon the Myrrh-Streaming - in the world Stefan Nemanja, is especially revered by the Serbian Orthodox Church as the creator of the independent medieval Serbian state of Raska from the Roman Empire (Byzantium), the founder of the Serbian Nemanjic dynasty and the father of the founder of Serbian autocephaly, St. Sava of Serbia.
In Montenegro, since December, protests of believers and religious processions have been taking place in response to the authorities’ adoption of a law that allows the confiscation of churches and monasteries of the Serbian Church in favor of regime-controlled schismatics.
Montenegro separated from Serbia in 2006 under the pretext of “faster integration into the EU”, but has still not received EU membership. In 2017, against the will of the population, without a referendum, Montenegro was included in NATO by the pro-Western ruling elite.
Now about 30% of the population of this former part of Yugoslavia call themselves ethnic Serbs.
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