Ukrainian scenario: Montenegrin separatists begin an active struggle against Orthodox Christians
The ruling pro-Western regime of Montenegro is beginning to counter the protests of believers, who have been holding mass processions of the cross since December against a new law that allows the confiscation of churches and monasteries in favor of schismatics loyal to the authorities.
Balkan media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
In Montenegrin Cetinje, the city where the seat of the Montenegrin-Litovian Metropolis of the Serbian Orthodox Church is located, the police did not allow believers to hold a protest procession planned for March 8 this year.
The metropolis filed an application for the action on March 3, however, having received a refusal, it sent an appeal to the court, but it also sided with the administration. The main reason for the ban by the authorities was the wording “for security reasons.”
Earlier in the city there was a “gathering of citizens” - local anti-Serbian nationalists who said that they would not allow religious processions to take place.
Thus, a precedent has been created in Montenegro according to which the authorities will be able to disrupt protest actions of the SOC.
In recent months, religious processions have attracted hundreds of thousands of people across the country every week - twice a week. Last Thursday, mass prayer services and religious processions took place in Podgorica, Niksic, Pljevlja, Bar, Budva, Beran.
Anticipating the possibility of an unfavorable development of events, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia expressed concern that the situation could lead to physical confrontation and bloodshed.
“The Serbian Church gave birth to and raised Montenegro, without it it would not have lived to see us, since the Montenegrin rulers were metropolitans,” recalled the primate of the SOC. – But the Serbian state and the Serbian Church never objected to the revival of Montenegro as a state. But it has no right to be an enemy of Serbia and the Serbian people. The current situation in Montenegro also causes great harm to those who call themselves Montenegrins.”
The Patriarch noted that the indignation of many people is caused by the desire of the authorities to take away the shrines and hand them over to the hands of “Metropolitan Miraš Dedeić” (the head of the schismatic “Montenegrin Orthodox Church” - ed.), who was excommunicated from the Church for various misdeeds.
At the same time, people “calling themselves Montenegrins,” in particular, the parents of students of the Primary School “Pechatnik Makariy” wrote a complaint to the Educational Inspectorate against a music teacher who allowed the children to learn the song “We will not surrender the shrines,” written in support of church protests by the rap group “ Belgrade Syndicate.
The group itself was denied entry by the country's authorities after its members were invited to participate in a prayer service by Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and Primorye.
At the same time, the Montenegrin protesters were supported by the famous tennis player, world number one in singles Novak Djokovic.
“Greetings and support to the brotherly people of Montenegro,” Djokovic wrote on Twitter.
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