Orthodox Christians are being repressed in Montenegro: Bishop and priests of the SOC are arrested
Yesterday evening, Montenegrin authorities arrested and detained Bishop Ioannikiy of Budimljan-Niksic and nine other SOC priests for holding a liturgy on the day of remembrance of the Serbian saint Basil of Ostrog, revered in Montenegro.
Balkan media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The service in honor of St. Basil of Ostrog took place the day before, on May 12, in the cathedral of the city of Niksic and, according to quarantine regulations, the priesthood did not invite believers, however, several hundred children of the Serbian Orthodox Church gathered on their own initiative to honor the memory of the saint revered by the people.
At the end of the service, a police squad arrived at the cathedral with the intention of arresting Bishop Ioannikios and the priests who served him, but the people did not allow this to happen. Therefore, late in the evening, police arrested the bishop and priests at the Diocesan building (Parish House) and took them to the Niksic Security Center, near which believers began to gather, chanting “We will not surrender the shrines!”, “We will not surrender the bishop!”, “We will not surrender the priests.” !” and sang prayers. Special police units were urgently deployed against the Orthodox Christians to disperse the street riots.
After a two-hour interrogation, the bishop and priests, by decision of the prosecutor, were arrested for 72 hours and sent to prison.
“All those who did not fulfill the agreement and the promises they made to the police will be held accountable with all the ensuing consequences,” the head of the Montenegro Police, Veselin Veljović, commented on the situation on Twitter of the Montenegro Police Department.
“If you bring us [to prison] on behalf of the people who have gathered for the litiya, then everything is in order,” Bishop Ioannikiy answered the Montenegrin punishers. – I have no problem with this. Sometimes I’m even ashamed that I’m free, that I’m not in prison, given everything that’s going on.”
In turn, many eyewitnesses to the arrest of priests noted that they had not seen anything like this since the days of socialist Yugoslavia. The arrest of the priesthood of the Serbian Orthodox Church provoked mass protests in many Montenegrin cities: in the capital Podgorica, Bjelo Polje, Pljevlja, Beran. This incident became the topic of a telephone conversation between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Serbian Patriarch Irinej.
Orthodox Christians in Montenegro are protesting, demanding the release of priests.
The Serbian leader expressed confidence that the arrested priests will soon be released and expressed support for the church in its peaceful struggle for its rights. At the same time, the head of the SOC noted that the law “On Freedom of Religion”, which discriminates against the Serbian Church in Montenegro, “our people responded with great indignation at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, and the fact that the bishop and priests are currently being arrested and are detained is only proof that the Montenegrin state is persecuting the Serbian Orthodox Church.”
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