“on 12 may in Niksic on the feast particularly revered in Montenegro, St. Basil of Ostrog was a traditional Montenegrin prayer of the faithful of the dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), she said. Under the pretext of violation of the quarantine measures for its police disperse used tear gas. Was detained and released only on may 15, Bishop Budimljansko-Nikshichsky Ioannikii and the accompanying priests. On may 19 the U.S. state Department noted the importance of human rights in the religious sphere and has supported rigid actions of the Montenegrin authorities. Such a statement suggests that the subject of the Church considered in Washington entirely through the prism of geopolitics. There is a blatant desire to divide the Orthodox world, to destroy the integrity of the spiritual space in the Balkans”.
Official representative of the Russian foreign Ministry pointed out that another surge of tension in Montenegro, provoked by heavy-handed actions of the authorities against the Church and its parishioners in this country, is disturbing. “Convinced of the need to solve all the problems in the constructive dialogue with the standards, rules and norms enshrined in international instruments, while respecting the legitimate rights of the canonical Church and the believers, – said a senior diplomat. – Disregard their opinions, and also artificial separation of believers and the more unscrupulous foreign intervention is fraught with big problems and even shocks, which can easily overwhelm the region.”
meanwhile, the Metropolitan of Montenegro and Primorsky Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) Amphilochius of warned that the provocative actions of the Montenegrin authorities bring the situation to a civil war in this Balkan state.
the Position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue in an interview with RIA Novosti stated the Chairman of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. “We fully support the call for a constructive dialogue between the authorities of Montenegro and authorities of the Orthodox Church in the country, he said. Only such a dialogue can serve to restore civil peace and accord in the society, which was broken the whole series of manifestations of a hostile attitude towards the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is sufficient to recall the adoption by the Assembly of Montenegro at the end of last year undoubtedly discriminatory law “On freedom of conscience and religion and the legal status of religious communities,” a proper assessment to which the Russian Orthodox Church was promptly given in the Patriarchal and Synodal Epistle in connection with the situation in Montenegro”.
