I'm not sure I'm doing good by being a citizen Croatia, I am involved in a polemic that fiercely opposed not only believers and non-believers, but also themselves believers, who no longer even choose the words they use to anathematize each other and, what hurts me the most, dehumanize them. But since I consider myself a Christian who lives according to Paul's "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor master, there is neither male nor female; because you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Daničić-Karadžić, Gal, 3, 28), therefore, since for me in these Christian matters, paraphrasing the apostle Paul, there is neither a Croat nor a Serb, I have a great need to suggest something, albeit shyly and hopefully unobtrusively.
I am almost certain that it is not difficult to understand how things stand on a principled level. This was explained in an interview with "Večernji list" from Zagreb, the parish priest of Dubrovnik, Vladan Perišić, doctor of philosophy and retired professor, and at one time also dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Belgrade, who supported the students on these pages as well (see "Vreme" no. 1775). Dr. Perišić says that "whoever has a conscience would have to support the student's demands because they are not only student's but they are demands whose fulfillment is the foundation of every healthy and normal society".
The unfortunate thing, says the respected professor and parish priest, is that we have come to the point where we need to demand such a self-evident thing. "Let me remind you, the students are only asking for the institutions to function. To do what the constitution and law oblige them to do. And they are not interested in who will hold which functions. As long as the laws are followed. Therefore, this is clearly not about party protests and the so-called colored revolutions, as the criminal government insinuates. This is about something new and completely different. On the demand for the rule of law, which should lead to a fairer society". Dr. Perišić gave them his full support because he also wants to live in an organized state.
Instead of arguing about whether the blessed patriarch Mr. Pavle had this or that intention on March 11, 1991, when he appeared in front of the students to ask them to disperse in peace and experienced and calmly endured the loud booing of the crowd and the cry of "treason, betrayal!", we should not forget that when he "on his knees" asked the students to disperse in peace, "that all these questions are ours... to be discussed on a place where they can argue calmly and sensibly in the general interest", and when he told them "I will go... I will also go to the other side to ask them on my knees to part peacefully in the general interest in such difficult circumstances", so we should not forget that bishop and professor Atanasije Jevtić then appeared on the scene to repair, that is, control the damage - therefore, instead of trying to offend each other and multiply attacks, is it possible to imagine a scenario in which would passion subsided?
I am not naive, on the contrary, I am aware that Serbian society is "in an acute political and moral crisis", with no clear signs of its resolution and ending. Since the tragedy at the Novi Sad railway station, it has been in a state of both institutional and extra-institutional turmoil...
For weeks now, dozens of value-divergent texts analyzing the above-mentioned events have been published in various media. Each of them in their own way touches on the "tragedy of our reality" (presbyter Dr. Zoran Devrnja, professor of the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Belgrade), but I am a person dedicated to dialogue and attempts to understand, which I have learned and put into practice, especially since I deepened my friendship with Patriarch Porfiri in 2014, when he came to us as a metropolitan in Zagreb.
Bearing in mind that this friendship obliges me, I would like to think something out loud and tell you that it would be terribly healing if Patriarch Porfirje, perhaps with auxiliary bishops and other collaborators, and if possible in front of the people, prayed for those already globally known 15 minutes for the souls of the victims from Novi Sad.
I am sure that he would be accused of collusion, and some in the Church would say that the patriarch served both memorials and memorial services for the victims in Novi Sad, which is true and which, objectively, has far greater importance for the Church than any other action... and it is clear to me that the initiative would build an unnatural bridge over all the mentioned congested events and actors, but it is more important to me, because I know for sure that Porfirij respects everyone's conscience as a saint space, that the patriarch, with a gesture that now seems above all gestures to me, shows, in Eucharistic terms, "the end of everything with pictures", that is, how he agrees with the original demands of the students, how he agrees with Dr. Perišić's principled views and how he inherits the peace-making spirit of Patriarch Pavle. I accept that I am accused of naivety, but not of manipulation: the good Pavle would have shut up about those healing, mystical 15 minutes with the students.
The author is a theologian, journalist and activist
