PUBLIC STATEMENT FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE HELD IN PODGORICA
28.12,2000

The Attitude of the Present Montenegrin Regime towards the Orthodox
Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral in the Light of Modern
European Laws Regarding Relations between the State and the Church

It was only a few days ago that the Montenegrin Parliament, Prime
Minister and the Minister of Religion, through their written guarantees
and decisions, showed signs of good will and made a step towards
unraveling of piled up problems. And yet, it seems that, with his
yesterday's statements, Montenegrin president, Mr. Djukanovic, 
deliberately tries to discredit the decisions made by the highest state
institutions. It is a well known fact that all the attempts so far to
legally protect property, honour and dignity of the Metropolitanate of
Montenegro and the Littoral, within the institutions of the Montenegrin
state, ended up in endless legal proceedings without no prospects of
ever being resolved. This means that the only democratic means to try
and defend ourselves are peaceful protests.
The peaceful protests of the Orthodox Youth Organization of Montenegro
testify the anxiety of young people regarding the future of their Church
and the future of the Montenegrin state. Young people are asking the
government to put an end to desecration of churches which presents the
regime with the perfect chance to manifest, in deed  what they kept
proclaiming as the key goal of their programme, namely, the power and
the importance of the rule of law. These youngsters  are, also,
determined, if needed, to fight a longstanding battle in order to stir
the dormant consciousness of every Christian and a true democrat in
today's Montenegro. The efficient mechanisms for the protection of
rights of the ancient eight-century old Orthodox Metropolitanate of
Montenegro and the Littoral and their faithful will really come into
effect when everyone of us experiences a true inner change affirmed
before the face of God. These mechanisms will not and cannot be
actualized in statements before the TV cameras which are full of
deception and greed.
Today, the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral is
systematically being deprived of its rights. It is clearly visible from
the present status of this ancient Diocese established by St. Sava which
has, through centuries, been the national and state forming Church of
Montenegro, that this Diocese is the pillar of the Montenegrin identity
and presents its cornerstone which is exactly why it is being attacked
today.
There is no church-state legal contract regarding relations between the
state and the Church. This enables various church delinquents to,
systematically and without punishment, commit violence against the
Church and abuse religious feelings in order to politically manipulate
by forging historical and legal facts.
Present Montenegrin regime avoids to give back and reimburse property,
which the Metropolitanate was illegally and violently deprived of. This
means that the elementary rights of the damaged party to get
compensation are being denied.
A law, which would return catechism to schools as a basic human right,
guaranteed by the Constitution and many other international legal acts,
has never been passed. This means that the rights to religion are
disregarded and disrespected.
 If the relationship between the state and Church in Montenegro were
regulated by contractual law and division of competences, as in
civilised European countries, the state would have to bind itself to
respect and guarantee the Church's rights to deal with its internal
affairs, freely and autonomously. These vital questions deal with the 
essential identity and being of the Church. Before all, this refers to
the rights of the Church (and no one else) to determine what and who the
Church is. According to the modern European laws it is the
Constitutional right of the Church to determine itself. It, actually,
means that the state would have to accept the legality of the autonomous
church-legal acts contained in the Church's constitution, and to
guarantee their validity within the secular law. This, and only this,
means that the state recognizes the Church. And, only in this sense is
the state  authorized to recognize the church. Through such legal
contracts, democratic countries  bind themselves to, among other things,
respect and legally protect the following:
1. the organizational structure of the Church
2. rights to Church service and the protection of the Church service
(religious freedom and rights to religion)
3. Church sovereignty regarding the Church services
4. legal validity of the decisions made by Church courts (international
legally binding decision regarding of defrocking of a church delinquent
is flagrantly being ignored in Montenegro)
…

* * *

In addition to plain robbery and violence against the Church's property,
the faithful and the clergy of the Metropolitanate, the highest
government and legal institutions, skillfully proclaim themselves
unauthorized and unable to arbitrate, but at the same time, through the
state-controlled media, they organize and instigate undisguised violence
and open persecution of the Church. Moreover, the church delinquents are
not trying to back up their criminal activities with any canonical or
legal claims whatsoever.   They are, in fact, relying on the actual
conditions where no laws function  and therefore there is no rule of
law. This allows them, then, to reinstate, once again, the laws of the
Wild West in Montenegro.
This is how the legal system of a country as well as the canons of the
Church are being destroyed in the name of religious freedoms, which then
creates the feeling of total anarchy and lawlessness.
In all this, the church delinquents are supported through a campaign
conducted by  the state-controlled, supposedly 'independent' media,
which ardently keeps proclaiming human and religious rights as well as
'professional' reporting.

Through these acts, the government openly supports the reign of a
media-conducted chaos which ends up in total anarchy.

* * *
 The plan of the government which instigates robbery and desecration of
churches is pointing to the distant past in order to re-establish of a
narrow-minded tribal consciousness and atheistic national-chauvinism.
The former ideological, communistic fanaticism is being replaced with
the ideologically shaped clan mentality, while the blind devotedness to
the 'party'  transforms itself into false doclean-national romanticism.
Does this mean that neither Church nor state courts are any longer
needed in Montenegro? Will instead, every single clan or brotherhood
collect signatures and proclaim themselves as a body authorised for just
about anything, disregarding courts of law and showing utmost disrespect
for the Church?
Does this mean that we can expect hypocrisy and satanism of the worst
kind? Are we to expect that the regime will start lynching the Church in
the name of religious freedoms of the people who openly declare
themselves as satanists?
 

Press Service of the
Montenegrin Orthodox Youth Organizations