Even though Patriarch Porfirije stated recently that the content of the fundamental agreement, which is supposed to be signed by the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Government of Montenegro, was aligned and only needed to be signed, it soon turned out that it’s still a draft.
Bishop Joanikije of Budimlja-Nikšić, who’s also an administrator of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, says they have only draft agreement, adopted by the SPC, for now. Now the government should declare on it. For him, as he says, and for the church, unless both sides sign the agreement it actually doesn’t exist in a legal sense.
“We should understand significance of the fundamental agreement correctly, trying not to attach less or greater importance to it than it has. It’s obvious that many people either don’t know or they don’t want to know about significance of the agreement,” Bishop Joanikije tells in an interview for Radio Svetigora.
He further stresses that Montenegro signed three fundamental agreements with other three religious communities: the Holy See, the Islamic and Jewish community.
The agreement with SPC is to be signed by Patriarch Porfirije and PM Zdravko Krivokapić.
