UOC Bishop: Antichristians didn't hear Montenegro people and were disgraced

Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshevka. Photo: kp.ua

The authorities of Montenegro did not hear the people who urged them to change their mind, and the people gave their votes in favor of those politicians who stood up to defend the Church. Bishop Victor (Kotsaba) of Baryshevka, Vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis, Head of the UOC Representation to European International Organizations, said it in a commentary to the UOJ following the elections in Montenegro, in which the opposition forces had received the majority of votes in parliament.

The hierarch noted that the parliamentary elections held in Montenegro demonstrated the fidelity of the words of Holy Scripture: "Do not touch My anointed ones, and do not harm to My prophets" (Psalm 104: 15).

“The authorities of this country, headed by President Milo Djukanovic, openly opposed the Church of Christ in their land,” said Bishop Victor. "Eight months ago they adopted an anti-church law, which, like the anti-Christian edicts of the Roman emperors who persecuted the Church, expressed only one thing: "you should not be there." This decision of the authorities caused a storm of popular indignation. In a single spiritual impulse, people began to defend their shrines."

He recalled hundreds of thousands of Montenegrin believers taking to the streets with peaceful protests, urging the authorities to come to their senses and not raise their hand against what belongs to God only, not to become persecutors of the Church, “but the authorities did not obey” their people.

Instead, the citizens obeyed their archpastor, Metropolitan Amfilohoje (Radovic) of Montenegro-Littoral,” added the hierarch. "This God-fearing elder and staunch guardian of Orthodoxy, seeing that his calls to the authorities demanding the abolition of the anti-church law are futile, urged the people not to vote for a government that raises a hand against the Church. So the people gave their votes for those politicians who call for an end to the persecution of the Church and give Her the freedom that is guaranteed to everyone by the Constitution, international legal norms, and the historical heritage of Montenegro."

According to the bishop, the victory of the political parties that have defended the Church in Montenegro “can still be stolen”, and the fight against anti-church forces continues, “but the people of Montenegro have made their choice”.

“The prayers of ordinary people were answered. And those who were at enmity with the Church were put to shame. All this is very similar to our recent Ukrainian history. The former president of Ukraine and those forces that sought to destroy the Ukrainian Orthodox Church suffered a crushing defeat. 'God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows,' wrote the apostle Paul to the Galatians. This must be born in mind by all those who rise up against the Church of Christ. They suffer defeat in this earthly life, and in the future they put themselves outside the Kingdom of Heaven," Bishop Victor of Baryshevka summed up.

As the UOJ reported, on the eve of the parliamentary elections, which were held in Montenegro on August 30, 2020, Metropolitan Amfilohije said that the future of the Church in the country depends on their results and urged everyone to vote "in defense of God's holy things." Opposition political forces won the majority of seats in parliament following the elections, which took place with a record turnout. The leader of the Montenegrin opposition, Zdravko Krivokapic, said that one of the first decisions of the renewed government would be the abolition of the scandalous law "On freedom of religion".

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