Metropolitan Amfilohije to Djukanovic: “Everyone who threatened to destroy churches has long since disappeared”
The Bishop of Montenegro and Littoral Amfilohije of the SOC confirmed his intention to restore the Chapel of Peter the Second Njegos in Lovcen, despite the threats of the country's President Milo Djukanovic.
The metropolitan also stated that he intends to restore the 7th-century Miholska Prevlaka monastery, destroyed in the 15th century by the Catholic Venetians, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
Bishop Amfilohije declared that he prays for God to restore sanity to all who threaten him. He also declared that he will not abandon his plans to restore the chapel in Lovcen and build the Church of the Holy Trinity near the Cetinje Monastery.
“The Church of God has suffered for centuries, and it still suffers today,” the bishop noted. – You yourself know what the persecution of the church was like at the time when the wicked ruled, who destroyed and expelled people from the church. They were forbidden to follow the path of God. And those, their successors, want to create their own church. What madness! On the one hand, this indicates that in their consciousness there is an understanding that without Christ, the Orthodox Church, there is no survival for this state, this people.
They just don’t understand that they should return to this church, God’s, the true one, so that they can continue the work that has been done here by all the holy men of God... May God restore the minds of these followers of Marx and Engels, Broz (Tito).”
In the last phrase, the Metropolitan hinted that the party of the Montenegrin dictator Milo Djukanovic - the Democratic Party of Socialists - is the direct heir of the Union of Communists of Montenegro, which was engaged in persecution of the Orthodox Church. Until recently, Djukanovic himself called himself an atheist in all interviews.
"The fact that they want their own church is an indication that there's something good and blessed within them, but they will only achieve this blessing if they return to the faith of their ancestors," Bishop Amfilohije commented on Milo Đukanović's words about destroying what the Metropolitan erected in Lovćen and, if necessary, going into the forest to fight as a guerrilla . "Let him not threaten to run into the forest and destroy from there. Here in Montenegro, holy places have been built over centuries. All the destroyers have perished, and what they destroyed, God's holy places, are now being restored."
The bishop also announced his intention to restore the 7th century monastery of Miholska Prevlaka.
Metropolitan Amfilohije to Djukanovic: "All who threatened to destroy churches have long since disappeared."