By the decision of the Church Court of the Archdiocese of Belgrade-Karlovica, they were permanently excluded from the SPC church community Pantelić i Milicevic. This ruling means that, for example, when they pass away, their family will not be able to bury them according to Orthodox customs. Both are believers, and Milićević was also a priest - until the decision on January 29.
"I am very honored by the high recognition given to me by the Church Court of the Archdiocese of Belgrade-Karlovica and its president, Serbian Patriarch Mr. Porfirije," says Milićević for "Vreme".
"I promise that in the future I will try to justify the trust they have placed in me with this decision and that I will continue, wherever and whenever I have the opportunity, to distort and point out the hypocrisy of the current top of the Serbian Orthodox Church, their heresies and shameful actions they caused and are causing immense damage to the church, which, in cooperation with the mafia regime, they completely usurped and subjugated to serve their criminal and warmongering goals."
Theologian Blagoje Pantelić wrote on social networks that he will certainly complain to a higher church instance.
Religion or politics: What did they "sin"
The SPC initiated proceedings against Pantelić and Milićević this summer, although it was not clear why. It is assumed that the Church wants to punish them for going public and his position on the connection between the Church and the regime of Aleksandar Vučić. At the end of November, Pantelić received a letter in which the prosecutor of the Church Court of the Archdiocese of Belgrade-Karlovica requested a punishment for him.
"It is permanent excommunication. Or as the patriarch would say: anathema," Pantelić explained this summer. "If the patriarch decides like that, then, for example, when I die, my family will not be able to bury me according to Orthodox customs, i.e. the priest will not be allowed to perform my funeral service."
Theologian Vukašin Milićević stated, after giving a statement in the summer of 2025, that there will be no real trial before By church court, but that everything is a matter of performance, as it will be Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) probably go to the extent of formally depriving him of the priesthood, and then excluding him from the church community.
Milićević, after being heard by the Church Court, stated that he stands behind every word he uttered publicly, with the best intention to preserve what is left of the SPC's reputation.
"The only way to change my views is to be faced with arguments, and until I see them, there is no change of views. There was no talk of guilt, but they quoted statements and asked me if I stood behind it and if I knew what I had broken. I did not break the law of the Gospel, but through my public appearances I advocated for the values as they stand in it. I could prove that those against whom I publicly spoke the Gospel made a mockery," stated Milićević.
The entire process and work of the church court was accompanied by a series of illogicalities. Metropolitan Pachomije testified in the indictment against the theologian Blagoj Pantelić that he had not communicated with him for 22 years, and had personally presented him with a scholarship in the meantime. Pantelić said earlier for "Vreme".
