“Church wants to preserve Kosovo”

SPC Bishop Irinej Dobrijević said that there is no reason why Serbia cannot retain sovereignty over Kosovo and enter the European Union.

Source: B92

Wednesday, 27.01.2010.

17:20

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SPC Bishop Irinej Dobrijevic said that there is no reason why Serbia cannot retain sovereignty over Kosovo and enter the European Union. “Neither I nor anybody else in the Church wants Kosovo independence,” the bishop, in charge of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) diocese of Australia and New Zealand, told B92 TV in an interview. “Church wants to preserve Kosovo” The bishop explained that “we must be realistic and to the point, and that if someone wants Kosovo’s independence, that does not mean that we should allow it”. “We must be ready and we must know how to react,” he said. “Why should the United States of America create a policy regarding Kosovo, which is a part of Serbia, for us? If America or some other country wants that independence, we must face it, but not accept it,” Irinej said. He added that he does not see a reason for Serbia not to continue its European integration and supported the stance of Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, quoting him as saying that “there is no reason Serbia cannot hold on to Kosovo and head towards the EU.” The bishop said Patriarch Irinej’s statement about Pope Benedict XVI visiting Serbia in 2013 was “somewhat bold”, because that decision will not be up to the new patriarch alone, with the Holy Assembly also having a say. But the bishop also stated, noting it was his personal position, that the Pope’s visit would be good for the Serbian people, “in order to heal the wounds in the body of the Serb being”. The SPC dignitary reminded of the cause of the several decades of cold relations between the Roman Catholic Church, saying that one of the reasons was World War II, the question of the Jasenovac death camp, and the role of the Catholic Church, which he said should “admit on its own to its participation in the war in order to clear things up once and for all”. Jasenovac was the place of mass executions of Serbs, Jews and Romas, run by the puppet Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

“Church wants to preserve Kosovo”

The bishop explained that “we must be realistic and to the point, and that if someone wants Kosovo’s independence, that does not mean that we should allow it”.

“We must be ready and we must know how to react,” he said.

“Why should the United States of America create a policy regarding Kosovo, which is a part of Serbia, for us? If America or some other country wants that independence, we must face it, but not accept it,” Irinej said.

He added that he does not see a reason for Serbia not to continue its European integration and supported the stance of Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić, quoting him as saying that “there is no reason Serbia cannot hold on to Kosovo and head towards the EU.”

The bishop said Patriarch Irinej’s statement about Pope Benedict XVI visiting Serbia in 2013 was “somewhat bold”, because that decision will not be up to the new patriarch alone, with the Holy Assembly also having a say.

But the bishop also stated, noting it was his personal position, that the Pope’s visit would be good for the Serbian people, “in order to heal the wounds in the body of the Serb being”.

The SPC dignitary reminded of the cause of the several decades of cold relations between the Roman Catholic Church, saying that one of the reasons was World War II, the question of the Jasenovac death camp, and the role of the Catholic Church, which he said should “admit on its own to its participation in the war in order to clear things up once and for all”.

Jasenovac was the place of mass executions of Serbs, Jews and Romas, run by the puppet Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH).

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