ROC hopes Montenegrin President won’t repeat Poroshenko’s mistakes

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, Head of the DECR of the Russian Orthodox Church. Photo: screenshot of Jesus-Portal YouTube video

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, commented on the religious situation in Montenegro and expressed the hope that the President of this country, Milo Djukanovic, would not repeat the mistakes of the former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Metropolitan Hilarion voiced his position on the air of the “Church and World” program.

According to the Head of the ROC DECR, the Montenegrin leader is guided by the same erroneous concept as Poroshenko in the fight against the canonical Church in the territory of his country. Both Djukanovic and the former President of Ukraine want to create a separate Church for their state.

“Although, for example, there is a Roman Catholic Church with the Pope based in the Vatican, and this Church has its dioceses and structures throughout the world. For some reason, no one says that it is necessary to separate these structures from Rome. Even in China, a compromise has now been reached between the Vatican and the Chinese authorities that the election of bishops will be approved by Rome, but no one says that this is interference in internal affairs,” said Metropolitan Hilarion. “Therefore, the statement of the problem in Montenegro is per se false, erroneous and dangerous, and it has already blown up Montenegrin society.”

Thousands of religious processions of the Orthodox Montenegrins indicate that society in Montenegro is dissatisfied with such a policy of the authorities, the Chairman of the ROC DECR drew attention to the public. He also added that the discriminatory law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, adopted by the Montenegrin authorities, is “a law on the actual nationalization of church property”.

“Moreover, after nationalization, the state will be able to transfer this church property to any structure, including the non-canonical ‘Montenegrin Church’, which is extremely small, does not enjoy any authority, but on the basis of which, apparently, the Montenegrin authorities are trying to create a national Church,” the hierarch explained.

Moreover, the Montenegrin authorities do not want to take into account the position of believing citizens of their country, he added.

“This volatile situation certainly benefits neither the Montenegrin state nor the people of Montenegro. Therefore, we very much hope that the President of Montenegro will give up on this destructive tactic, that he will not repeat the mistake made by the former President of Ukraine Poroshenko, and that he will enable the canonical Montenegrin Orthodox Church, which is part of the Serbian Orthodox Church, to act and develop normally,” concluded the Chairman of the ROC DECR.

Earlier, Metropolitan Hilarion noted that the unity of Orthodoxy was broken due to the actions of the Head of Phanar.

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