|
 The
status of the MOC and the Government attitude towards the MOC after WW2
in the 'Self managing Socialist Republic Montenegro' could be found in
the documents emerged as a result of the dispute between the Serbian Orthodox
Church (SOC) and the Government of Montenegro in late sixties and early
seventies. One of these documents is the letter sent by ‘Socijalisticka
Republika Crna Gora - Skupstina Opstine Cetinje' - Number: 01-5853 - Cetinje,
November the 2nd 1970 to Constitutional Court of Montenegro
– Titograd.
 On
April 27, 1970 Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coast (Crnogorsko-primorski)
–a branch of the Serbian Orthodox Church- filed a law-suit against government
of Montenegro and Cetinje municipality for their intention to build a mausoleum
on mount Lovcen. The Metropolitan alleged that, the decision of Government
of Montenegro and Cetinje municipality (1952) to move Njegos’ chapel on
mount Lovcen, and build mausoleum in its place, were unlawful and unconstitutional.
The Metropolitan lost the case eventually, and the Njegos’ mausoleum was
built by the renown sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, but it might be interesting
to see the official view (letter) of Cetinje’s authorities submitted in
a response to the claim of the SOC to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro.
 The
authorities of Cetinje in the letter to the Constitutional Court questioned
"active legitimacy of the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coast and
the SOC to represent the interests of the MOC in the Yugoslav courts".
The authorities stressed that, "had the MOC been in ‘regular state’ the
reasons for bringing up and judging whether the decision from 1952 of the
Government of Montenegro to build the mausoleum were constitutional and
legal, would have been meaningless". It follows "since the MOC is in a
‘non-regular state’ (neredovno stanje)- it has neither a Metropolitan
nor a Holy Synod- therefore nobody can bring about the dispute on its behalf.
The MOC was brought in ‘non-regular state’ practically by the abolishment
of the Montenegrin statehood (1918)".
The letter informs about the history of autocephal (independent)
MOC as well as its independent organization and internal governance. It
clearly disputes the legitimacy of Regent Alexander to abolish the MOC
in 1920. More specifically, "the Regent Alexander's decree issued on August
8th 1920, was neither constitutional nor canonical".
"By this decree Regent Alexander ‘united’ all the autocephalous
and autonomous orthodox churches in Yugoslav states, as well as eparchies
under the jurisdiction of other churches in one –Serbian Church".
"Unification of the ‘Serbian churches’ into ‘one’ Alexander did
while he was still the Regent of Serbian kingdom. However, he became the
King of the rest of the Yugoslav states in the following year (1921) by
the declaration of the so-called ‘St. Vitas Constitution’ (Vidovdanski
ustav). Thus, not before the declaration of St. Vitas Constitution
had the legitimacy of Montenegrin sovereigns from the Petrovics’ dynasty
ceased to exist. In other words, when the Regent Alexander ‘united’ the
‘Serbian churches’ not only the Kingdom of Montenegro still existed but
also the Holy Synod of the MOC was still functioning legally and factually".
According to Montenegrin historian Dr Dimo Vujovic (Ujedinjenje
Crne Gore i Srbije, Titograd 1952), between 1918 and 1921, Montenegro
was occupied by Serbian, French, Italian, English, and American troops.
This action followed the decision of the Inter-allied Commission in Versailles
to occupy Montenegro by allied forces while all the constitutional representatives
of executive power were confined in France".
" Therefore, Regent Alexander could not, either canonically nor
according to the church's constitutional law, abolish the Autocephalous
Montenegrin Orthodox Church, because it is indisputable that, even the
government never considered itself authorized to introduce any changes
into church organization without consent of the church's authorities".
The letter further states that,
"the current illegitimate state of MOC is a relic of the past.
At present the MOC is in the state of interregnum, and therefore the representative
of constitutional executive power in the Socialist Republic Montenegro
should consider the restoration and constitutional organization of the
MOC".
…"enlargement of the SOC in Montenegro was and remained the act
of violence, so that anomaly must be corrected by our Self managing Socialist
Government".
Despite these statements the MOC has not been restored during the era
of the ‘Self managing Socialism’. |
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