After the Holy Synod of Bishops in February Serbian Orthodox Church dismissed the duties of managing the Diocese of Žička from the Archbishop of Žička Metropolitan Justina and initiated the procedure to determine his canonical responsibility, he was definitively relieved of his duties on Saturday at the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
27 bishops voted for the removal of Metropolitan Justin of Žica.
Six archbishops expressed their opinion, that is, they were against but refused to participate in the vote, namely: Joanikije, Teodosije, Ignatje, Grigorije, Maksim and Dimitrije, writes the Nova portal.
Official accusations of the Serbian Orthodox Church
In the official announcement of the Serbian Orthodox Church from February, it was stated that the Commission of the Patriarchal Board of Directors, and then the Commission of the Holy Synod of Bishops, collected material evidence on the basis of which it was established that Metropolitan Justin of Žižka "committed numerous canonical and other ecclesiastical offenses in the management of the Diocese of Žižka entrusted to him".
In that announcement, it was stated that it was established that Metropolitan Justin of Žič "unauthorizedly founded three economic companies, concealed their operations, registered as the real owner of three economic companies and made an unauthorized sale of 34 church properties in Kraljevo and Čačak."
It was also stated that "unauthorizedly and contrary to valid church regulations, he concluded harmful contracts with legal and natural persons worth several million, made unauthorized loans in the amount of several million to various companies in Serbia, committed financial abuses unprecedented in the Serbian Orthodox Church, which entail criminal liability before state authorities."
"The secular state does not exist"
The theologian Vukašin Milićević, who was permanently excluded from the church community of the Serbian Orthodox Church, said at the time regarding the decision to dismiss Metropolitan Justin that "a secular state does not exist" in Serbia.
"The church regime is one of the agencies of the state regime, i.e. the clan that usurped the state. These are their collaborators, collaborators in a joint criminal and criminal enterprise whose sole role is to obtain some kind of religious, pseudo-metaphysical legitimation for their wrongdoings. So, these are the people who shape pedophiles, who shape war criminals, in whose ranks criminals and rapists occupy the highest positions. So, the same as in the case of this regime. It's nothing the church, it is an extended arm of the mafia," Milićević told N1 at the time.
The part of the public that opposes Aleksandar Vučić's way of governing and supports the student-citizen rebellion is of the opinion that Metropolitan Justin was dismissed because of his unequivocal support for the students.
He openly sided with the students and warned the authorities that "power was not given for the sake of violence, but for the sake of service".
He showed this, among other things, by being one of the six archbishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church who - as a kind of response to the already famous text of Metropolitan David of Kruševac, in which the Serbian Ustaše and Lubjanka are mentioned - stood up for the students.
Why Metropolitan Justin could not remain silent, read in detail in Jelena Jorgacevic's comment.
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