President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić said today, during a visit to the Pinosava Monastery in Smederevska Palanka, that the latest attack on the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porfirije came from Slovenia and emphasized that it is another in a series of attempts to undermine what is sacred to the Serbian people, as well as to the Serbian state.
“Our state will deal with that. It is one attack in a series of those that are meant to destroy what is sacred to the Serbian people, and also in the Serbian state. So go ahead, you have toppled the president, you have toppled the army, now go ahead and topple the patriarch as well, topple the Serbian church too,” Vučić said, responding to a journalist’s question on how he comments on the latest attack on the SPS and its patriarch Porfirije.
He stated that those who attack the patriarch claim that he is not the Serbian Church and emphasized that the patriarch is the highest and most important among all of us who belong to the SPC.
“And you see, I think that only speaks well of our patriarch. That is all I can tell you. I truly think it only speaks well of him. Because it is enough to look at how some say: ‘If you are ever not sure who you should stand with, whose work you should support, whose deeds you should be proud of, it is enough to look at what those who are not our friends, not to say a harsher word, say about us.’ And from that you will understand everything,” Vučić said.
He stated that the one whom Croats criticize a lot actually deserves respect and honor among the Serbian people, and that it is clear what kind of opinion should be held about those whom Croats praise.
“I think people eventually recognize that, and our patriarch is much greater, higher and more significant than how they try to portray him through various methods of belittlement, calling him by his secular name, not calling him His Holiness, but ‘their Porfirije’. He did not herd sheep with you for you to call him Porfirije,” the President of Serbia emphasized.
He pointed out that all of that speaks about the reality of that liberal, not only godless, but also antisystemic, anti-state and anti-national system in many countries.
“That is something we are facing here and something we will ultimately defeat, as always,” Vučić said.
He emphasized that the Serbian Orthodox Church has always throughout history been the foundation and anchor of our people.
“The Serbian church preserved our people where we had neither army, nor police, nor state. The Serbian church was the one that, in cooperation with the state, sometimes even without a state, always helped its people. And when we remain somewhere without a state, the Serbian church is there to stand by our people,” Vučić said.
He emphasized that Serbian statehood cannot be imagined without the Serbian church.
“And when you connect the early Serbian medieval state with the Nemanjić dynasty, it is also connected with the autocephaly of our church as early as 1219. I want to tell you that the Serbian church is the foundation, the basis of Serbian statehood and Serbian culture, and we must understand that. That does not mean that everyone must be a believer,” Vučić said.
He added that he is a believer, but not in the sense that he goes to church and liturgy every day.
“Do I believe in God, do I believe in our national, if you want, Serbian church — I do, of course. And that is why it bothered me when in the region they wanted to say Orthodox Church and then give it a geographical designation, just so it would not be Serbian,” Vučić said, adding that our monks and clergy were the first to notice that.
He emphasized that the state and the church are separate from one another, but that the state and the church must jointly care for the interests of their people.
“And they must have common interests and they must have common things and they must protect one another. Above all, the state must help the church,” Vučić said.
The State Prosecutor’s Office in Ljubljana filed an indictment proposal on January 12 against Patriarch Porfirije over accusations made against him by priest Željko Lubarda.
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Source: Euronews, Foto: Ata images