Petkovic: The right to religious life has been abolished for the Serbian people in Kosovo

The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija announced that with today's ban on Patriarch Porfirije from residing in the Patriarchate of Pec, the right to religious life was abolished for the Serbian people in Kosovo.

"By banning His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije from staying in the Patriarchate of Pec, the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, after being denied a whole series of basic human rights, also lost the right to religious life. The patriarch's moderate and Christian reaction to the ban on his arrival in Kosovo and Metohija, accompanied by his prayer for peace between Serbs and Albanians, once again confirms how correct and just the struggle of the Serbian people for survival in Kosovo and Metohija is and the extent of the evil and violence to which our people are exposed," Petkovic said in a press release.

As the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija reminded, the Pec Patriarchate is the centuries-old seat of Serbian patriarchs.

"The right of Patriarch Porfirije to serve in that monastery, of which he is the head, is inviolable and older than any secular right and stronger than any earthly violence. The one who made the decision to ban the movement of the Serbian patriarch practically banned Christianity in Kosovo and Metohija. However, Serbian people are immune to such bans, because they have preserved their Christian faith in much more difficult times, and even much bigger forces have not managed to extinguish the Serbian candle, and neither will evildoers, who are in power in Pristina today," Petkovic said.

Petkovic wondered if Christian Europe, at a time when it collectively celebrates the Christmas holidays, will remain silent in the face of "this unprecedented violence".

"And will they get over the fact that a Christian nation in the heart of the continent is after all forbidden to pray to God? Should they start burning our churches and monasteries again so that someone will wake up? Let those who think about it these days they are bringing thugs from Pristina with long pipes to the north of Kosovo and Metohija! Let them think again about what they are helping and who they are helping," Petkovic stressed.