Serbian Patriarch Porfirije will today cross the administrative line separating Serbia from its province of Kosovo and Metohije, Serbian Times learns from well-informed sources in the Patriarchate.
According to our findings, the patriarch will spend the Easter holidays among the Orthodox faithful in the Patriarchate of Peć, where he will stay for the next few days.
After much negotiation and complication, the Serbian Orthodox Church managed, through the mediation of the US embassies in Belgrade and Pristina, to secure the possibility for Patriarch Porfirije to spend the greatest Christian holiday on holy Serbian land.
An important role in the negotiations was played, as we learn, by an influential Serbian businessman from America, close to Patriarch Porfirije, but also to the administration of President Donald Trump.
According to that agreement, the patriarch will not be able to tour Kosovo and Metohija and will stay exclusively on the property of the Patriarchate of Peć.
The visit of the Serbian patriarch comes after he sent a letter to Pope Leo two weeks ago, ahead of the start of the implementation of the Kosovo Law on Foreigners, warning that its enforcement could endanger the survival of Serbs and Orthodox shrines in Kosovo.
The law began to be applied on March 15, with additional measures requested by the European Union just prior to that. The letter warns that the application of the Law could call into question the functioning of the educational and healthcare systems for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as trigger their emigration.
A day earlier, the patriarch sent similar letters to a series of world officials, calling on them to influence the authorities in Pristina to suspend what he cited as discriminatory provisions.
Author: Antonije Kovačević Photo: SPC