Request that SPC is registered in Montenegro – new provocation
Ivana Mastilović Jasnic
24. 06. 2011
Incidents by authorities in Montenegro concerning Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) are going on. The stories over church property and expel of priests and monks are still fresh, however, Montenegrin Home Ministry has made the situation even more difficult by announcing that the Serbian Orthodox Church does not legally exist in that country.
In a written statement that ‘Blic’ got from Montenegrin Home Ministry there is written that it has been wrongly reported ‘that SPC does not exist legally’ but ‘that it has not been registered in the Register of religious communities’.
‘The Home Ministry is not causing tension with anybody but is exclusively implementing laws. Obligation for registration has been stipulated by the Law on religious communities, so the Serbian Orthodox Church is accusing this institution for expel of priests and monks without any ground’, the statement reads.
At Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral they say that Montenegrin authorities interpret the law as it suits them.
‘In the Law on religious communities from 1977 which is in force, there is no obligation for registration of the religious communities which existed at that time, but only of those founded later. Now the Police Minister and his SDP are trying to abuse official authority and force Mitropolitanate to register itself at the police as done by the so-called ‘Montenegrin Orthodox Church’. That shall not happen’, Velibor Dzomic, Coordinator of the Legal council of Metropolitanate says.
Religious analysts claim that the announcement by Montenegrin Home Ministry is yet another provocation. Zivica Tucic says for ‘Blic’ that the problem is in too long waiting for adoption of new law on religious communities.
‘Without law on religious communities it is not fair to force Metropolitanate to give statements as to who the founder of the church is and what its statute is. Should they reply Christ and New testimony? Theoretically all religious communities have to register themselves but the difference has to be made between traditional religions in Montenegro such as Serbian Orthodox Church, Catholic Church and Islamic communities on other religions on the other side such as the Baptists or the Mormons’, Tucic says.
