Bishop Joanikije of Budimlje-Niksic on the new Law in Montenegro “…Terrible injustice is being imposed against the Serbian Orthodox Church; we are experiencing an attack on Orthodoxy in Montenegro, designed, projected, but, as Christians, we have a duty to resist and to stand up against the injustice, that our people and their priests have done.

We remind this state, and the entire domestic and international public, of the basic truth that the state stands on the citizens in the same way as the Church stands on the believers. If, these days so many citizens of the Orthodox Church of Montenegro have expressed their disagreement with the injustice that is being done by passing the Law, and if there have been so many of our justified reactions, identified by going out to the streets, when everything has already been brought to absurdity, then everyone that is coming out and everyone who came out to the street testifies that the law is null and void and not enacted in accordance with the will of the majority Church in Montenegro,” said the Bishop of Budimlje-Niksic. 

“This law must be withdrawn. This would be a practice in any normal, civilized, and especially, pro-European country.

However, Montenegro is returning to primitivism with this Law, because it is not in accordance with law, justice or international standards. It is only in accordance with the evil will and greed of those who wish to abduct church property and humiliate the Church, the Holy, Divine, Orthodox Church, and our holy faith,” said Bishop Joanikije and added:

“We must not allow that the testaments of the Holy Prince Miroslav, of the duke Prvoslav and the king Stephan Nemanjic, the founder of the Moraca monastery, and of St. Basil the Ostrog and of other confessors of faith of our kinship be violated; they erected these shrines and dedicated them to God and the Church, and hence must not be offended. Although the authorities say they will not desecrate the shrines, they will later say, as soon as they are registered, that they are the owners and can do whatever they want with them. They have already said that they would share them with whom they want and how they want or turn them into a business… “

The Church, together with faithful people, opposes these evil intentions, but not with fire and sword, but with truth and justice.

Bishop Joanikije of Budimlje-Niksic on the new Law in Montenegro, 3. January 2020