Page 783 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Pressure on the faithful is being applied in various ways, sometimes open, sometimes through anonymous letters and threats not to be engaged with the church, not to seek restoration and the repair of church facilities. Because of the permanent dislocation of our population in the parish of Podujevo, which 20 years ago had over 1,000 house- holds, now there are barely 300, and it is over 30 km. from Priština; we have to subsidize the parish priest with 900 dinars per month. We achieved this by reaching an agree- ment among all the priests to give 20 dinars per month each and the rest comes from the diocese executive Coun- cil. in the administrative district of Peć some parishes have beenredrawnandjoinedwithothers.Thispermanentdis- location remains our greatest difficulty and there is no end to it in sight.
Use of derogatory language directed at priests is a regu- lar occurrence in both cities and villages. But attacks with rocks and other objects are not rare, either. The priest in the village of Mušutište was attacked by older albanian children throwing rocks when he went to visit his orchard, and he is still going all the way to Kruševac for specialist andrehabilitationmedicaltreatment.”96
The Year 1979
in a meeting on September 10, 1979, the Holy Synod of Bishops discussed the petition of His Grace Bishop Pavle (No 302 from july 23, 1979), which states the following:
“at the beginning of the month of February of this year, we informed the Commission about an incident involving 11 youths of albanian nationality who ran around Gorioč Monastery shouting ’Priest!’ at the monastery elder along with other vulgar and swear words. Harassment and inflict- ing of damage to the monastery is still occurring: chickens are stolen, timber is cut down in the monastery forest in the middle of the day. at the end of july of this year at 8:00 p.m. one young man dared to enter the monastery barn and tied up the monastery donkey. When abbot Sava went to the barn to check on the livestock, the youth pushed Fr. Sava so that he fell, and then ran away.
in Sokolica Monastery near Kosovska Mitrovica, two unknown persons attempted to remove the monastery bull from the church courtyard in the middle of the day. This was repeated a few days later. Then one day at the end of May at about 2:00 p.m. someone set fire to a stack of mon- astery hay and over 1,000 kg. burned completely.
The sisters of the monastery of Devič have complained, orally and in writing, to the Municipal assembly and the police station in Srbica that from the beginning of the spring almost every day the shepherds from Vojvodići, especially Batalovi and the son of Sinan, are doing damage, breaking fruit trees, pulling up crops in the garden, frequently driv- ing the monastery sheep far from the monastery and there
96 AHSB, Syn No 969 and 1299/1978.
milking them, stealing eggs and chickens, attacking the sis- ters with rocks, accosting them with vulgar and swear words, making chauvinistic statements chasing them from the monastery and the area ’because they say this is theirs.’
We again appeal to the Commission for Relations with Religious Communities of SaP Kosovo asking that a halt be put once and for all to such actions which undermine good relations among the members of our two religions and nationalities, as well as between the Orthodox Church and state authorities because they essentially undermine ’brotherhood and unity,’ the foundation on which our coun- try should rest and the guarantee of peace and freedom for allitsmembers.”
it was decided on this occasion that the Commissions for Relations with Religious Communities of the executive Council of the assembly of SR Serbia and the executive Council of the assembly of SaP Kosovo be asked to inter- vene to protect Serbian Orthodox monks and nuns from attacks and enable them to live and work in peace in their monasteries.
The Commission for Relations with Religious Commu- nitieswasalsoinformedofthematterforitsinformation.”97 in the same meeting the Holy Synod of Bishops also discussed the report of His Grace Bishop Pavle No 504 from
august 7, 1979, stating the following:
“We have received this report from the administration
of the monastery of the Holy Trinity:
’On Saturday, august 4, 1979, in the courtyard of the
church of the Holy Savior in Mušutište, Sister efimija and i brought two wagons of coarse gravel with the monastery tractor to fence in the courtyard in accordance with the approval of the diocese executive Council from Prizren No 334 from May 18, 1977. When we brought the third load neighbor Rahman Šalja came by and told us not to unload the gravel there because it did not belong to the church but was, he said, our meadow. There was never a church there, he said, you just brought rocks there and proclaimed there was a church. We will bring a bulldozer from Suva Reka to level all this. He attacked me with coarse and swear words, saying: You are from Serbia, you have nothing here, go to Serbia. He took a shovel i had in my hand and waved it threateningly. We returned the tractor to the monastery. Today, august 6 of the current year, when i passed next to the courtyard of the Holy Savior, there was no gravel any- where, someone had taken everything in just one day.
We inform you of the above appealing for the protec- tion of the law for us so that we can do our work in peace like other citizens.’
The Holy Synod of Bishops treated this case like the former (by writing to the Commissions of the Federal ex- ecutive Council and the executive Councils of SR Serbia and SaP Kosovo).”98
97 AHSB, Syn No 1599/zap. 401/79. 98 AHSB, Syn No 1683/zap. 402/79.
The Suffering and Persecution in Kosovo and Metohija from 1945 to 2005
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