Students University of They are not in the blockade, they criticized Patriarch Porfirio and the statements he made during the meeting with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, talking about the "colored revolution".
"We express deep disappointment, sadness and anger about the meeting." Patriarch Porfirio with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, as well as the statement he made on that occasion. The patriarch said that in Serbia 'a colored revolution is being prevented' and thus he stood shoulder to shoulder with those who call our struggle, the struggle of young people for dignity, justice and freedom, a coup d'état", it is stated at the beginning of the announcement.
The students reminded the patriarch that academics are not enemies of their country.
"We are her children. And when you call us "imported revolutionaries", when you silence us, when you are silent about our demands, you are not only betraying us. You are betraying the truth. You betray the Gospel. You are betraying the morals you are supposed to protect. Just as Judas betrayed Christ, so you, the patriarchs, betrayed the students, the people, and the truth," it added.
"The church is silent in the face of injustice and speaks only when it needs to defend the regime"
The publication assessed that the struggle of the protesting citizens "is so pure that everyone who wears the mantle should stand with it, with students, with their children, on the street, in defense of the dignity of the people. Instead, you chose to sit with an autocrat who led his country into war, and instills fear, discord and repression in others."
"The connections of the church leadership with the state power in Serbia are deep and dangerous. When the church defends the regime instead of the people, it loses its authority. And it becomes an instrument of force, not faith. The state leadership systematically devalued everything that makes sense, everything that binds us to dignity, community, morality. They devalued knowledge, by humiliating education and science. They devalued work, with minimal wages and life in uncertainty. They devalued the law, by trampling on institutions and selective justice. And now, for the sake of their survival in power, they have also devalued the Church," the announcement reads.
The students of the University of Niš in the blockade say that "the sanctuary has been made into an extended arm of political propaganda."
"Instead of being a refuge for the weak and a support for the truth, the Church is silent in the face of injustice and speaks only when it needs to defend the regime. With that, they also took away her dignity, turning her into another pillar of the system that tramples on its own people."
"Patriarchs, why are you not among the people"
"We do not attack Orthodoxy. We defend its fundamental values: truth, justice, love, solidarity. We do not attack faith, we call for its authentic testimony. We did not condemn the silence of the SPC, but you our 16-minute silence did. And that is why we ask you, patriarchs: where were you when children were hungry, when women suffered violence, when young people fled this country? Why are you not among the people", the students ask in the announcement.
"The church does not fail when it is attacked, but when it is led by the unworthy. Let everyone choose their own sides, we have chosen the truth," the students concluded in a statement.
