Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
Oktober 5, 2004

COMMUNIQUE OF THE METROPOLITANATE OF MONTENEGRO AND THE LITTORAL
RELIGIOUS PHILANTHROPIC TRUST OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BELGRADE AND KARLOVCI ORGANIZES LECTURE SERIES

COMMUNIQUE
OF THE METROPOLITANATE OF MONTENEGRO AND THE LITTORAL

The night of October 3-4, 2004 at approximately 1:00 a.m. a group of young men in Cetinje brutally attacked the families of Raja Vojinovic, the editor of Radio Svetigora, and Deacon Jovan Plamenac, the director and editor in chief of this communications corporation.

A week ago some scaffolding had been placed along the side of Njegoseva Street to repair the roof of the building which houses Radio Svetigora and the apartments of Raja Vojinovic and Deacon Plamenac as well as the administrative offices of the Information and Publishing Institution Svetigora, the editorial offices of the magazine Svetigora, and the Orthodox Christian book store of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral. By climbing the scaffolding the young men managed to get to a window on the apartment of Raja Vojinovic. One of them, whom the others called Nino (he later turned out be the son of the late Boba Bogdanovic), started to enter through the window, shouting the most terrible curses at the expense of the Church and Serbdom. Vojinovic, fortunately, was not yet asleep and when he heard the noise he ran into the room that the young man was attempting to enter. He asked him “Where are you going?” and in response the intruder continued to furiously swear and spit at Vojinovic. The other young men on the scaffolding were also shouting at the top of their voice. In this scene of horror, Vojinovic drew a revolver and pointed it in the direction of the window. The young man continued to scream and spit. This went on for some time. When the young man decided to lower himself into the apartment, Vojinovic very carefully (because the window is quite small) fired a warning shot into the air next to the young man. While the others panicked and began to try to convince the young man not to enter Vojinovic’s apartment, he continued to curse. At the same time a group of young men, also shouting furiously, charged at the back door of the building. The scene was like a horror movie. Vojinovic’s terrified daughters were crying hysterically. The emergency number of the Cetinje police station was constantly busy. Continuing to protect his family, Vojinovic kept the revolver pointed at the window while the other young men on the scaffolding tried to pull back the one who was trying to enter the apartment. It is difficult to say how long this lasted. When the police phone line was finally free, the potentially fatal drama was reported to police. The police arrived quickly and one of them, wearing the uniform of a traffic policeman, climbed up the scaffolding and forced the young men down, still shouting and swearing. Soon thereafter other policemen arrived who set up security posts on both sides of the Svetigora building. Vojinovic and Deacon Plamenac were taken to the police station. Vojinovic was detained.

The Orthodox Church in Cetinje has been under the attack of antitheists for a long time. As far back as the time of Metropolitan Danilo of blessed memory the only protest meeting in Yugoslavia was organized here because the Metropolitan opposed to the extent of his power the destruction of a church on Mt. Lovcen. When Metropolitan Amfilohije assumed the throne of St. Peter of Cetinje, an armed attempt to usurp Cetinje Monastery was prevented by the faithful (in 1991). Since then to the present day the Orthodox Church in Montenegro has been crucified as nowhere else in the world. Ongoing attacks on students of St. Peter of Cetinje Seminary escalated to the point where one victim almost lost his life after being stabbed with a knife within an inch of the heart. The burning of monastery hay and the puncturing of tires on automobiles owned by the Church have become criminal acts, which no longer interest even the media.

Dozens of reports to official institutions regarding the humiliation and abuse of students of the Seminary and members of the clergy, forcible entry and illegal occupation of the churches of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral have waited for years without any sort of response by the judicial institutions of the Republic of Montenegro.

The most recent endangerment of lives of employees of the Church and their families are the epitome of attacks on the Orthodox Church in Montenegro in terms of their unscrupulousness. This attack demonstrates that the current Montenegrin regime identified with the state after a comprehensive, determined and unscrupulous media campaign wants to abandon the Church to permanent terror, thus allowing the continuation of fifty years of violence and disenfranchisement under the Communist, Titoist regime against it. And even worse.

RELIGIOUS PHILANTHROPIC TRUST OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BELGRADE AND KARLOVCI ORGANIZES LECTURE SERIES

The Religious Philanthropic Trust of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Karlovci is organizing a series of lectures in the Auditorium of the Patriarchate, Kralja Petra I Street number 2, during the month of October. On Tuesday, October 5, 2004, Vladimir Dimitrijevic will present a lecture on the topic of “The Church Life of the Contemporary Orthodox – The Path and the Wrong Way – (The So-Called Old Calendar School)”. On Tuesday, October 12, Hadzi Dragan Popovic will speak on the theme “Assembly of Virtue – The Fight against Heresy”. The following Tuesday, October 19, 2004, Protopresbyter Professor Dr. Radomir Popovic will be lecturing on the topic of “The Church in the East in the 19th Century”.

[Serbian Translation Services]