Over the last 20 years, Serbia has been slowly improving its relationship with the Holy See. Last fall, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, visited Serbia. During his visit, he met with the country’s president and prime minister as well as recently-elected Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church, telling the Serbian press that “Pope Francis is open for all invitations.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) In Montenegro, both the Serbian and Montenegrin Orthodox churches claim the rights to use Orthodox religious sites. But the Montenegrin Orthodox Church is not recognized by any other Orthodox church, and the conflict hits at questions over national identity, church-state relations and even U.S.-Russia relations.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Serbian Orthodox Church elected Patriarch Porfirije after its former leader died of COVID-19. Porfirije has won many international accolades for growing a drug addiction therapy program and building bridges between Serbs, Croatians and the people of Kosovo, a disputed Muslim-majority territory with many 13th and 14th century Serbian Orthodox holy sites.
Read MoreThe highest court in the U.S. overturned an attendance limit on New York houses of worship, Europeans deal with miscommunication over anti-radicalization policy, Greece joins the Serbian Orthodox Church in a battle over safety in worship as the pandemic tears through their highest-ranking clergy, and China eyes a new law to control religious appointments.
Read MorePatriarch Irinej contracted COVID-19 after presiding over a funeral of a bishop in Montenegro, where thousands of attendees did not wear masks or socially distance. He was known for his pro-Russian stance in Orthodoxy, his close relationship to the Serbian government and president, and for overseeing completion of one of the world’s largest Orthodox churches, St. Sava Cathedral.
Read MoreHundreds of thousands of believers in the tiny Balkan country have been protesting a new law that would allow the government to take possession of property from the Serbian Orthodox Church.
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