Serbs “among Europe’s most Religious Nations

VEČERNJE NOVOSTI
6.10.2011

BELGRADE — A Belgrade daily writes today that Serbs are among Europe’s most religious nations, and adds that 95 percent of the population declared themselves as religious.

The Večernje Novosti newspaper asked the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Patriarchy to comment on this “astonishing data”, where they were told that the Serb nation is “religious in its essence”.

“After decades of enforced atheism in our society, people have turned to the Church. The temptations that our state has been exposed to in the past years contribute to the strengthening of our faith,” the daily quoted its SPC source.

Minister for Religion and Diaspora Srđan Srećković also commented on the report by saying that the state and the Church are and will remain separated, but noted that for Serbs, national and religious identity are one and the same.

Meanwhile in the town of Novi Sad, the civil association Atheists of Serbia said the official data was incorrect.

The atheists believe that the number of non-religious Serbians was far greater.

“Between 15 and 20 percent of our citizens are not religious,” maintains the association’s Andrija Šrek.

Šrek said the previous census data was not correct, and blamed “some census takers who ask questions by suggesting to the citizens to declare themselves as religious”.

Last year’s U.S. State Department report noted that the Serbian Constitution guarantees religious freedoms, and that the country’s population was made up of some 85 percent Orthodox Serb Christians, five percent Roman Catholics, three percent Muslims, and 1.5 percent Protestants.

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