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In a statement released late on Tuesday on the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) official website, Bishop Irinej Bulović of Bačka said they’re only publicly discussing this topic “because (Catholic) Bishop of Zrenjanin Ladislav Nemet in his statement in the Novi Sad daily Dnevnik misrepresented a meeting between a delegation of the SPC and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican secretary for relations with other countries”. Bishop Irinej said that the government invited Mamberti to Serbia, and that, “as a sign of respect towards the majority (Orthodox) Church and its head, Mamberti’s visit included a courtesy meeting with Serbian Patriarch Irinej and the Holy Synod, on 30 June, at the Patriarchate in Belgrade. In a friendly informal discussion, both sides emphasised the need for further improvement of relations and coöperation between the two churches. They also discussed the need and usefulness of bilateral meetings on high and highest levels, but Mamberti didn’t deliver any historic invitation from Pope Francisco to the Patriarch and members of the Holy Synod to visit the Vatican”.
He added, “Only the bishop of Zrenjanin knows how it is that Patriarch Irinej and members of the Holy Synod agreed to visit the Vatican… and what kind of diplomatic negotiations on ways to organise this visit” are now going on… something that Nemet also spoke about. According to Bishop Irinej, Nemet consistently demonstrates “his obsessive need to deal with the SPC and lecture it”. He added that the likely real purpose of Nemet’s “excursion” was to inflict yet another insult to the SPC, its leader, and the entire Serb nation… “by comparing us to kindergarten children that do everything out of spite. In any case, dialogue and cooperation amongst the churches won’t be called into question because of the sensationalist public statements of Bishop Nemet, that are counterproductive exactly to what he verbally and formally stands for. At the same time, he’s obviously not aware of the danger of excluding himself for a long time, perhaps permanently, from the dialogue that is ongoing despite the many challenges and obstacles”.
13 August 2014
B92
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2014&mm=08&dd=13&nav_id=91279
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