In the sea of madness that has surrounded us in the Balkans and Serbia for the last decades, Father Nenad Ilić often knew how to be a beacon of light in the darkness, helping to illuminate some topics and dilemmas that troubled us with his sharp thoughts and spiritual mission.
After returning from Amsterdam, where he renewed and elevated the Orthodox parish in those areas, Father Nenad was retired upon his return to Serbia, but that does not prevent him from continuing to view and speak critically about what weighs on him and all of us regarding the state in which we live and the leaders who run it, as well as the church in which we pray and the people at its head whose actions cast a shadow over its significance and history, and turn away from the path of those who led it before them, from Saint Sava to Holy Patriarch Pavle…
We began the conversation with him regarding the most significant thing that has happened in Serbia in the past year…
Father, how do you view the awakening of the student movement and everything that the students have brought us in the last year, including the national reconciliation with Bosniaks from Sandžak, i.e., the Raška region?
-It is as if God sent us that child from the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes” to reveal simple truths to us. Presumably through the prayers of our holy ancestors. Truths that we covered with wrong assumptions and our own laziness and irresponsibility. When you stray so far and complicate things as has happened to us, you must stop and look at the essence of the problem in which you are stuck.
Our students – the most beautiful revolution the world has seen
-The youth look at us in wonder. They don’t believe that we don’t see how simple things actually are. If you have made a bad system, it simply needs to be dismantled and reassembled. Then we start to despondently complain – that it’s not easy, that you have no experience, that it’s impossible, that it is what it is. And they then, for more than a year now, continuously and persistently force us to wake up and activate. To find in ourselves that simple faith that things can still be fixed. They do not animate us from podiums but testify with their feats. With bloody soles and sleeping under the open sky. They have crisscrossed all of Serbia and written over it with their hope and love. The most beautiful revolution the world has seen…
-And then also that which we see in Novi Pazar. That you cannot reject people because they are different, that we cannot all believe the same or have the same desires. But that we can understand each other and cooperate, not allowing the unnecessary deepening of divisions. Divisions that paralyze the life of the people and benefit only the authorities. The authorities fan them as needed and use them with the sole goal of their endless rule.
Today everyone speaks about what kind of economic and political trace Vučić’s rule will leave… But I would ask you: What kind of spiritual consequences will 13 years of power and the value system promoted by the President of Serbia and the people he is surrounded by leave on the Serbian people and state?
-It is difficult to completely separate those material and spiritual consequences. And it is not easy to notice specific spiritual damage in our people, when truth has obviously been abolished on the world stage. The reign of “post-truth.” A surplus of information that hides the truth. Now politicians lie uncontrollably all over the world. But the lie is more disastrous here because we do not have a system that protects the foundations of the country, which is now enslaved, practically a colony. Systematic work was done only on inducing a state of helplessness and passivity. Helplessness often wants to make people turn malicious. To almost bite each other. To block the paths of mutual cooperation. No one trusts anyone. And the best protection is to immediately attack the people who would show the way but, well, maybe they could trick you. I don’t want to turn out stupid again… People feel humiliated, cheated. The media in Serbia teaches the people malice by directing it at anyone who would say “people, this is not good, let’s change it.” Perhaps in the future it will turn out that the most difficult spiritual consequence of all this is the difficulty of gaining trust. Both in oneself and in others. And without trust, there is no healthy life of the community.
The top of the government advertises a relationship dominated by sycophants and sadists
Our people say “a good servant, a bad master”… Does that mentality in which people, while in lower positions, behave sycophantically toward superiors, and when they climb a step higher, abuse their subordinates… best describe the value system now in force in Serbia? And what can we expect in the future from generations that accept it as such, as an inevitability, even in their youth?
-Since this regime was established, exactly such a relationship has been advertised from the top of the government. The arrogant appearances of the president on the domestic scene… Complete disrespect in relation to subordinates or journalists and sycophantic cringing before those more powerful than him on whom the length of his rule depends – all of that is by no means a good educational example for the people who are under such rule.
-But luckily the youth no longer accept it. Generally, it would seem that they have realized how harmful the cult of a leader, some kind of big boss, is for Serbia. They themselves in their movement do not allow the establishment of a cult of personality, leaders of rebellion. Unusually cleverly, they deny the authorities and their media the opportunity to use dirty campaigns to deal with those who oppose the illness. And for years, that has been their main activity and task. Now they are quite taken aback. It was easy for them with the opposition they could control without problems. Even the one they didn’t create themselves.
This regime, which came to the throne advocating national policy and the defense of Kosovo and Metohija at any cost, has in the meantime handed over all levers of power to Pristina, as well as institutions, except for the church… In such a situation, how do you see the future of Serbs and Serbia in Kosmet?
-All of us in Serbia are just watching so that, after everything, the final suicidal blow is not dealt. Formal recognition. Complete surrender. Treason has prepared everything very skillfully so far. Step by step, the famous boiling of the frog performed so successfully that it could go into textbooks. Since it would be difficult for the previous set in power to do it, you bring noisy nationalists to power who will much more easily implement the completion of the results of the NATO occupation of Kosovo and Metohija. And that is how it was done until near the end.
-We really have nothing better than not to sign the final surrender and to wait for a change in geopolitical circumstances. In the meantime, urgently do everything to introduce the rule of law in the rest of Serbia. So that through connected vessels and whatever authority, everything is done to legally protect the remaining Serbs even in the occupied territory. All in all, the best protection will be to make Serbia again a country where everyone wants to live and not to secede from it or flee from it. Of course, the problem of Albanian nationalism will remain, but times change and so does the momentum of this or that nationalism.
The top of the SPC and Patriarch Porfirije have recently been conspicuously rare in addressing the public with messages about Kosovo, which they used to do regularly. Why is that?
-I really don’t know. Given the tight hug with this government – perhaps they received instructions to reduce that rhetoric. Perhaps they themselves believed that the scammers in power have some strategy. Or they simply think that Albanians should not be provoked because they can again intensify the persecution of the remaining Serbs whom no one is there to protect, which seems most likely to me. The problem is that this also opens space for the current Serbian authorities to continue unhindered dismantling the last remains of Serbian institutions in Kosovo.
It is wrong to hand out church recognitions to state leaders
In past years, and honestly decades, a practice has been established that people involved in all sorts of affairs, from political to criminal, become major church donors? Do you think it is okay for the church to accept money from such circles?
– I don’t think that money should not be accepted. It is not good to judge what is sincere there and what is not. But probably one should not allow the illusion that it is a matter of some kind of purchase of forgiveness. Everyone should sincerely settle accounts with God.
Also, some politicians, from President Vučić to the heads of large state enterprises, have received the highest personal church recognitions because of the people’s money they donated to the church… How normal is that practice?
-I think that is already completely wrong. Through the devaluation of recognitions, the reputation of the Church is also crumbled, the already collapsed system of values is additionally endangered, and it directly helps bad government rule the country longer and sell it off and break it up more easily. And the fact that someone is awarded a medal for redirecting state money is a special story. As if we are supporting the logic of medieval feudalism in the middle of the twenty-first century. I don’t remember if, for example, Zoran Đinđić received a church medal for restarting the completion of the Temple of Saint Sava or for the return of religious education to schools?
How do you comment on the attitude of the European Union toward the events in Serbia? And do you get the impression that Europe wants a modern and democratic Serbia, or is it primarily led by its political and corporate interests?
-The impression of an increasing number of people here is that the European Union is suited by those in power in Serbia who will unquestioningly follow their instructions. And while they are obedient, how they will rule is much less important. Even the peoples who are in the EU, the ruling circles there would gladly turn into slaves. If that were possible where the legal system functions to some extent. In Serbia, it does not function.
A significant number of priests think similarly to me, but they are blackmailed
You are one of the few priests who publicly speaks out against Vučić’s regime… Why do people from the church hesitate to speak critically about what is happening and what is your motive for doing so?
-A large number of priests and believers I meet think similarly to me. Not to speculate now whether it is a significant number, half, or even the majority. I, as someone who in all the years of serving in the Church had additional, “reserve” crafts, could more easily express my opinion than priests who are under the absolute power of their bishops. Often practically blackmailed by the temporality and insecurity of their status.
A significant number of active believers find an island of stability, peace, and security as the main psychological “benefit” in the Church – which eludes them in everyday life in such a world. Therefore, they are not inclined to take a critical stance toward church authorities. They don’t even like the thought that they can be wrong. Although we proudly point out that we Orthodox have always been against the cult of papal infallibility, we do not recognize that we assign infallibility to our church authorities.
-Of course, a person should primarily take a critical stance toward themselves and not toward others. But when we notice errors in the functioning of church authorities, we should not start personal attacks, which unfortunately often happens with that half that critically views current events. Criticism should be directed at actions and decisions that affect the community, not at personalities. But that is the logic of our distorted public scene in general.
-My motive for expressing critical views, even though it brings me various insults and potential problems, is a sense of obligation. The bad government here has completely divided Serbia, so that division is very much felt in the Church as well. Someone must address and someone must speak on behalf of the huge number of believing people who are confused by everything happening and the injustice to which the church leadership agrees. Since as a retired priest I no longer have my own parish, I consider it my task to testify to all those normal but disappointed and sidelined believers that the Church is not a place of forced single-mindedness, but a God-human organism that encompasses different personalities without the need for them to lose individual differences. It is not about questioning the truths of faith but only the social functioning of the Church and believing people.
A number of bishops seem to be blackmailed by the service, others enjoy themselves…
Among the SPC bishops, the situation is even more drastic. Only six bishops reacted to Bishop David’s text in which he called students “Ustaše”… Are the bishops silent because they support Vučić’s government or for some other reasons?
-In the Orthodox Church, the idea of symphony is nurtured – the harmonious connection and cooperation of Church and state. That idea had its peaks in the past, in times when the ruler was anointed in the Church. Even then, and especially today, that symphony was more of a desired goal, and the state too often took control over the Church. The abuse of that Byzantine sentiment and nostalgia for glorious times allows much greater control of the Church by state authorities today. Thank God there are bishops who resist the control of state authorities and think seriously about the social role of the Church.
I cannot say exactly how and who, but it is possible that a number of bishops are sentimentally tied to the idea of symphony. From what is seen, a number have accepted the comfort, money, and positions of reputation and power that the state provides them for obedience and giving up any criticism of the government. Even when the faithful people need to be defended against injustice. It seems that a number are also blackmailed by some knowledge that certain state services carefully keep for the control of the episcopate.
-Lately, and especially after the passing of authentic authorities such as Saint Amfilohije and Atanasije, work is being done on greater centralization of the Church. This suits the state for easier control of the Church, and it also suits those bishops who want to preserve their privileges. What is unusual is that many do not feel their responsibility for the future of the church mission among the Serbian people. That they do not see how many are disappointed and those who distance themselves from the hierarchy.
Porfirije’s words about students before Putin are a great scandal
How do you comment on that appearance of Patriarch Porfirije in the Kremlin and the unprovoked sentence in which he called the student protests a “colored revolution” and said that “they will solve it”?
-That is indeed perhaps the biggest foul that happened in this crisis. The Serbian patriarch says how he does not get involved in politics, how he is actually not against the youth who are protesting. And it is clearly seen how his sermons and actions lean toward justifying the government, which is difficult to justify. Many of us think that this is a matter of some kind of church diplomacy and learned long silence and slow action and that when needed, the church leadership will place itself above the conflicting sides, not that it will take the side of the criminal government. Surely we are not in some kind of Sicily in the bloom of cooperation between the church and the mafia…
And then the patriarch goes to Putin with Bishop Irinej and tells on his youth, his people. He takes the side of those who will defeat the desire for justice and a normal Serbia! Was everything until then a lie? A great scandal from which many believing people are still recovering.
What does the fact that the Russians, in the end, from the entire conversation of Patriarch Porfirije with Putin and interlocutors in the Kremlin, broadcast exactly that clip for the public tell us?
-A serious politician, Putin knew that he would have to make some unpopular moves in relation to the people in Serbia. Because he has to cooperate with the current government. At the same time, of course, he knows that the people in Serbia are in the vast majority sympathizers of Russia. So as not to endanger Russia’s historically lasting soft power in Serbia, he shows: Here is what your patriarch told me. Whom should I believe if not him. If there are some mistakes, it’s not because of me but because of you. Your patriarch and president. He even says a good word about the Serbian youth in protest…
A great shame for Vučić’s church delegation in Moscow.
How do you think the situation in Serbia will be resolved, on the street or in elections? Are you an optimist?
-Uh… I don’t know. What the students are doing is truly a gift from God. And it works toward collapsing the strength and compactness of the criminal clique. On the other hand – it is difficult to imagine that this government and its main representative will recognize any democratic process. I hope that the dissolving of the core of the malfunction happening lately will affect the homogeneity of the current false elite. And that the thinning out will begin there. I don’t like it when I see a mass calling for revenge, which can only homogenize the people facing withdrawal and responsibility. We pray to God that everything ends without blood. That would have to be treated for years. And otherwise we have many things that require patience in repairing.
If you, as a priest, were to send a prayer dedicated to the Serbian people now, how would it go?
-For something that great, I can only call upon Saint Nikolaj of Serbia, who is also my family patron and protector: Lord God most merciful, forgive us Serbs our sins, return our freedom to us, and give us strength to glorify Thee in freedom like never and no one before. Amen.
I criticize my son, but I believe that in the future Baka Prase will give his people many much better things besides the circus
Your son is one of the most famous, as it is popularly said – YouTubers, influencers! There have been comments on the networks in previous years in the style: How is it possible that the son of a respected priest uses vulgarities and swearing in public appearances? How do you respond to such comments? And how do you generally view the appearances of your son Bogdan, do you ever criticize him…?
-Of course I criticize him. We have completely different tastes. He is very talented, but still wandering in his conquest of the world around him. Full of strength, he accepted the moral relativism currently ruling here and surfs without too much doubt. God grant that the wave of changes I desire catches him as well, so that he uses his gifts more usefully than before. And given that I know him also beyond that YouTube character he created and with which he has incredible success on this culturally dismantled Serbian scene – I believe that besides the current good deeds he does besides the circus, he will give his people many much better things. It is mine to pray for him, and we will see. As God wills. Until then, it is important that we love each other and that, despite all our differences, we are connected, says Father Nenad Ilić, a retired priest, at the end of the interview for Serbian Times.
Author: Antonije Kovačević Photo: Kosta Milovanović
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