(SERBIA)
The Good Men Project [Pasadena CA]
October 4, 2024
By Bojan Jovanović
What are the contexts in abuse and sexual exploitation extant regarding clergy in the Serbian Orthodox Church?
There are many scandals related to the clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church and their sodomic behavior. No one can deny this.
Abuse and sexual exploitation is abnormal predatory behavior.
It is rarely talked about that Orthodox churches have the same, and according to information, maybe even worse prevalence of pedophile and homosexual scandals, but unfortunately they do not get the media attention they have in the Catholic Church.
There is very little or no discussion on this issue among Orthodox Christians.
So, based on the evidence that has been publicly confirmed as true, there is a clear pattern of sexual abuse in the Serbian Orthodox Churches, but without criticism in the media and public inquiries.
One can only wonder what secrets lie within the hierarchy yet to be discovered.
Last year, at the invitation of the NGO ECAGLOBAL from Seattle, USA, for the first time someone from the Balkans had the opportunity to present the problems of pedophilia and sexual abuse in the Serbian Orthodox Church in such high places in the Vatican, the UN in Geneva and the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
On this occasion, I would like to thank the NGO ECAGLOBAL, their management and activists, because thanks to their efforts, processes have been started that no one can stop.
The exposition was the occasion for the organization of the Round Table held in March at the Croatian Parliament in Zagreb.
At the initiative of Mr. Ante Prkačin and the political parties Croatian Pulse, Croatian Party of Rights and Croatian Sovereigns, with the presence of a large number of Croatian intellectuals and guests from the region, the topic was discussed:
“The influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church on political trends and events in Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro: yesterday, today, tomorrow”.
The conclusion was drawn that it is not a church but a militant chauvinist organization that hides pedophilia and sexual abuse and acts as an instrument of the external power dynamics of Serbia and Russia.
Numerous cases of abuse in the Church discovered in the past decades show that triple abuse is most often at work, where, in addition to sexual abuse, we also have abuse of power, in the sense of using position and material goods to enable abuse, and abuse of conscience, in the sense of using spiritual authority against subordinates who are abused.
As a result of systemic clerical protectionism, cover-up implies actions such as ignoring reports, concealing and denying evidence and information, preventing investigation, intimidating or bribing victims and witnesses, moving the accused cleric to avoid investigation.
The summit organized by the NGO ECAGLOBAL last year helped a lot to raise the voice, they demand changes and security so that the victims get the support and justice they deserve.
By covering up pedophilia, we are giving criminals a wind at their backs, and the number of victims will never be known with certainty. We will end with the words of the SOC priest:
“Someone took me away for the first time too”
The role of SOC today
The issue of the interaction between religion and society is a topic about which, in an advanced context, there have been numerous discussions and in terms of the justification of human knowledge about the truth in certain beliefs. Even today, various opinions and positions are expressed about them, which can be very polemical in their expression. Although on an anthropological basis, the relationship between God and an individual is a deeply intimate category, this relationship takes on an additional dimension when God is promoted through the institutions of a certain religion and man through the social systems of a certain time and space.
Although this relationship could be viewed through the prism of all leading world religions, let’s focus in this text on the Christian religion and its relationship to the societies and states in which it is present and active.
It is known that Christianity as a religion experienced its historical promotion and stabilization during the Roman Empire. Even then, the relationship between religion and the state was very intimate. As one of the illustrative examples in this sense, it can be stated that during the creation of the Roman Republic, the Roman pontifex maximus received the royal palace for enjoyment – in other words, the high priest who thus received part of the royal authority. According to some authors, in the Roman Republic, as well as in the Roman Empire, the separation of church and state did not exist. This thesis can be supported by the fact that Julius Caesar, during his career as a statesman, at one point held the office of Roman high priest, and his stepson Octavian, who later became emperor Augustus, liked to emphasize his role as pontifex.
Along with numerous other similar examples from that era, it becomes evident that the concept of institutional unity, in which bishops and priests are also civil servants, outlived the Roman Empire itself and became the basis of civilizational relations in defining the concept of ecclesiastical and civil authority. This relationship became more and more ambivalent over time and ranged from synergy, especially when one of the two institutions was undeniably dominant over the other, to open conflict with some very cruel consequences.
If we fly through a whole series of eras in which the values of this relationship clashed much more than they were harmonized, we arrive at today’s post-industrial society where there is at least a principled consensus on some basic social norms such as; rule of law, democratically elected government, human rights and separation of church and state. In theory, at the beginning of the 21st century, Christian church institutions should exclusively deal with spiritual topics, and the state with secular ones. But is that really the case?
Everyone can find the answer to this question for themselves, but some objective facts should be kept in mind. For example The Catholic Church also promotes the “Social Doctrine of Faith” in its activities. If we are to be precise, it seems that at the moment there is no real consensus on what this term means, but perhaps its most precise definition was given by John Paul II himself when he said that it is “the exact formulation of the result of a careful consideration of the complex realities of human existence in society and international order, in the light of faith and church tradition” (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis). At the same time, the parallel reality in which the Orthodox part of Catholics bases its church organization on national and state autocephalous churches, which are often in direct symbiosis with the state authorities of the countries in which they operate, makes them largely subject to the policies promoted by the authorities in the given country.
This is exactly the case with the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC). Without taking big risks, it can be concluded that the SPC, from its very beginnings, promoted the national agenda and the promotion of Serbian state interests far more than the religious and spiritual domain of its calling. This is still the case today, when the interweaving of Serbian state and national positions is almost identical to that advocated by the SOC. Moreover, on some topics (such as Kosovo), the SOC is far more radical than the formal narrative of the authorities in Serbia, and at some moments a legitimate question can be asked, who actually creates Serbian national and international policy?
Although this question might not be so important in some more peaceful and stable times, today, when there are tectonic geopolitical changes in the world, it and how it comes to its expression because the answer to it carries a great devastating potential not only in the Southeast Region Europe, but also much wider. Precisely for this reason, the destabilizing influence of the SPC on its immediate neighbors, as well as on its current policy of supporting actors that are in direct confrontation with both the EU and the entire West, should not be underestimated for peace. The clearly defined, expressed and promoted anti-Western policy of the SOC greatly handicaps Serbia’s approach to Euro-Atlantic integration and the introduction of Serbia as a country into some more peaceful and stable waters. Insisting on its uniqueness and excellence compared to others, the SOC misleads believers from all over its pastoral area and evokes reminiscences from some other times when it became a tory about the greater value of some peoples compared to others. Everyone knows how these theories ended historically, and the persistence of the SOC to promote such a policy, regardless of the completely changed civilizational context of today’s Europe and the world, is almost unbelievable.
Equally, the short-sightedness of the SPC is even more incredible in relation to the scandals that are happening in the very wing of this church. Numerous documented events that leave a normal person speechless are covered up, covered up and hushed up by the highest officials of the SOC. The completely wrong concept that what is not talked about did not even happen is slowly being abandoned.
The book you are holding in your hand is a big step in that direction.
M.Sc. Damir Katulić
President of the Croatian.
Christian Association
At the forthcoming 10th international book fair in Podgorica from 02 to 06 October, in Montenegro, at the stand of the St. Petar Cetinjski Foundation and in the publishing house of the Association of Croatian Christians, the second amended edition of the book about pedophilia and other crimes of the Serbian Orthodox Church under the protection of the Serbian state will be promoted, and this is followed by the promotion of the book in Zagreb, Croatia.
Soon the edition will be in English