The Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Patriarchate has taken note of the scandalous decision of the Ljubljana District Court, by which Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia and the Parish of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Ljubljana were each sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, suspended for a probationary period of one year, and fined €10,000, likewise suspended for one year. These judgments were rendered, at the proposal of the Ljubljana District Prosecutor’s Office, in summary, or, more precisely, expedited proceedings.
The Holy Assembly of Bishops notes that neither Patriarch Porfirije nor his duly authorized legal representative had been informed in advance that judicial proceedings had even been initiated. Moreover, the Ljubljana District Prosecutor’s Office never invited the Patriarch to respond to the allegations brought against him, a fact which, in itself, constitutes an unprecedented departure from due process and speaks eloquently to the true purpose of these proceedings.
Of particular concern is the fact that information concerning these judicial proceedings was leaked to certain media outlets in Serbia immediately before this year’s session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops, evidently to conduct a malicious media campaign against the Serbian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Porfirije.
The Holy Assembly of Bishops informed the public that this case is merely the latest in a series of unfounded lawsuits brought against the Serbian Orthodox Church by the defrocked priest Željko Lumbarda. This former clergyman continued the gravely uncanonical and unworthy conduct that had begun during the tenure of the late Metropolitan Jovan and persisted while the present Patriarch of Serbia, His Holiness Porfirije, was serving as Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana. Both the Holy Assembly of Bishops and the Holy Synod of Bishops repeatedly examined the anti-ecclesiastical activities of this defrocked priest and adopted the appropriate decisions concerning his conduct, even before the election of Patriarch Porfirije, then Auxiliary Bishop of Jegar, to the Metropolitan See of Zagreb and Ljubljana.
According to the assessment of legal experts, the Ljubljana District Prosecutor’s Office and the Ljubljana District Court, as is evident from the reasoning outlined in their decisions, disregarded the fact that the appointment of clergy to ecclesiastical office and the transfer of parish priests constitute the inalienable canonical prerogatives of the competent bishop, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In doing so, they violated the Agreement on the Legal Status of the Serbian Orthodox Church – Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana, the Religious Freedom Act, the binding opinion of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, as well as the fundamental principles of a civilized society, the rule of law, and the principle of legality.
In light of the foregoing, and having regard to the conduct of the Ljubljana Prosecutor’s Office and the District Court, the Holy Assembly of Bishops requested that the Patriarch refrain from appealing the judgments of the Ljubljana District Court and, although those judgments deny the Church’s canonical order and constitutional structure, decline to participate, as indeed he has declined to do up to the present, in a Kafkaesque process directed solely against the authority, canonical order, and dignity of the Serbian Orthodox Church and, in particular, against the Patriarch of Serbia.
