Serbian Orthodox Church

Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
October 14, 2005

BUILDING INSPECTION ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY FOUNDATIONS OF FUTURE CHURCH OF NEW MARTYRS

A building inspection team protected by strong police forces attempted the afternoon of October 13, 2005 to destroy the foundation of the future church of New Martyrs on Pardus Hill in the Ljesanska district but were prevented from doing so by local faithful.

“This afternoon without any previous announcement to the church authorities and the church construction committee, building inspectors accompanied by a demolition team equipped with bulldozers, jackhammers and trucks and escorted by a strong police presence climbed Pardus Hill, which dominates the lower Ljesanska district and where the consecrated foundation for the church of New Martyrs has been located for the past five years, and began to destroy them,” said Cedo Radusinovic, president of the Ljesanska church parish in an interview for Radio Svetigora.

He said that the consecrated foundation of the church of the New Martyrs is on land owned by the church. “The site is not included in the city urban plan, the foundation was built five years ago when the road to the future church was also built, a license was obtained for this road to join the main road from appropriate transportation officials. As you can see, everything was built legally. We do not have a building license but the law does not require it for sites outside the area encompassed by the city urban plan.”

Local residents prevented the inspection team from completing the task. Luckily, Radusinovic said, the damage to the foundation is not great except in the souls and hearts of local residents and all Orthodox faithful “because an attack on a holy shrine, one of the greatest in the Ljesanska district, an act of violence against the consecrated foundation of a church on the feast of the Holy Cross and in this manner has deeply hurt us. We have advised government officials that we will not permit this destruction to take place. I would also like to say that all the policemen who were there acted correctly. After our warning and consultations among themselves, the police withdrew with an oral warning by one of the inspectors that we must not continue building this Holy Shrine.”

“As an individual and a believer I cannot believe that anyone could prepare such a shameful act. Time will show what the purpose of the attempt was and who is behind all this,” said Radusinovic.

He added that the local residents of the Ljesanska district intend to continue with the construction of the church, noting that this yet another of a “package of activities” directed against the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral.

Source: Svetigora Press (R.V)

[Serbian Translation Services]