Today: Group of Bishops Wrote to the Patriarch – We Did Not Invite Vučić and Dodik to the Council

(Patria) - Several bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) sent a letter to Patriarch Irinej informing him that they distance themselves from the content of the official final communiqué of the Council, which was delivered to the public on May 18 by the SPC spokesman, Bishop Irinej (Bulović) of Bačka, Danas learns in high church circles.

In the letter to the Patriarch, several participants of the Council, led by Metropolitan Amfilohije (Radović) of Montenegro and the Littoral, assess that the "spokesman unilaterally formulated some decisions, contrary to the will of the Holy Assembly of Bishops," for which reason they "express their disapproval and distance themselves from the said communiqué," the daily Danas published on its website, as reported by Beta.

The newspaper states that it had insight into the letter and that it contains claims that a group of bishops is disappointed that the author of the communiqué, Bishop Irinej of Bačka, "tendentiously presented and overemphasized the significance of the visit of regional political leaders Aleksandar Vučić and Milorad Dodik."

They claim, the newspaper reports, that "the sentence speaking of 'efforts and an unequal struggle with the powerful for the preservation of Kosovo within Serbia' is completely unnecessary, since the Council fathers did not have a unanimous opinion at all on the nature, skill, and sincerity of conducting that struggle, quite the contrary."

The letter denies that Vučić and Dodik visited the Patriarchate "at the invitation of the Council" as stated in the official communiqué, but rather that "it was at the initiative and invitation of the Patriarch," Danas reports.

The bishops demand that the sentence: "about the support and comprehensive assistance of the state of Serbia to our people to survive on the holiest Serbian land, Kosovo" also be removed from the official Council communiqué, in which, as they state, it was omitted that the Council, through its special communiqué on Kosovo, "confirmed its unwavering stance from the previous two Councils."

Assessing that they are "surprised and disappointed by the appearance of a text in which things are tendentiously presented differently than was fraternally agreed upon at the Council," this group of bishops demands that a new, supplemented and corrected communiqué of the Council be published.

Danas unofficially learns that Patriarch Irinej has not responded to this letter, and the version of the Council communiqué by Bishop Irinej of Bačka remains on the official SPC website.