RIGHT TO FUNERAL SERVICE GUARANTEED, ATTACKS ON THE SOC NOT SURPRISING

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 10 /SRNA/ – The Serbian Orthodox Church /SOC/ is obliged to provide a funeral service for its baptized members, while attacks on the SOC and His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia over the funeral service held for General Ratko Mladić are not surprising at all, as throughout history priests have often been among the first to suffer, theologian Nebojša Lazić told SRNA.

"Those attacks remind us that the SOC is the soul of the Serb people, that the Church and the Serb people are one, and that the SOC laid the foundation for the future of the Serb state when Saint Sava established its full autonomy and autocephaly," Lazić said.

Recalling that priests were among the first to suffer during both the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian occupations, as well as in conflicts and during both World Wars, Lazić said that in certain historical contexts they served as leaders of the people and provided a moral framework for its identity.

He pointed out that, from a religious perspective, conducting funerals is one of the fundamental duties of the SOC, because every person who is baptized becomes a member of the Church through baptism and has the right to a funeral service.

"That right belongs to them by its very nature. At times, even the family does not have to request a funeral service. If the deceased was a member of the Church and was born, lived and died as an Orthodox Christian, the Church is, according to its service book and canonical order, obliged to provide the final earthly farewell and funeral service as a religious rite," Lazić explained.

Lazić noted that religious rights are also guaranteed by UN conventions, as are the rights to birth, a dignified life and a dignified death. However, in General Mladić's case, an attempt is being made to deny him the right to a dignified death, which, he stressed, even the greatest monsters in history did not do to anyone.

He pointed out that, on the other hand, the religious rites of others are being pushed into the background, recalling that such attacks were absent in the case of the funeral of Bosniak General Rasim Delić, who was convicted in The Hague and whose funeral was led by their then religious leader, Mustafa Cerić.

Lazić recalled that Vozuća fell on this day, where Delić's El Mujahideen units expelled 1,920 Serb families from the Ozren area, while 129 people are still listed as missing.

As another example, he cited Croatian General Slobodan Praljak, who was also convicted in The Hague and was buried with full military honours, but said that guilt or presumed guilt is always imposed on the Serb people.

He stressed that the large number of Serbs who attended General Mladić's funeral in Belgrade confirms that the Serb people will not allow others to write their history for them once again, nor will they allow this in the future.

"The Serb people have remained alongside the SOC, and we saw this in the way the funeral service for Mladić was conducted so magnificently. For just as the people constitute the Church, the people have also delivered their own judgment of history," Lazić said.

Lazić said that this would not be affected by condemnations from some Western bureaucrats, Western and Eastern neighbours, or various calls.

"Our attitude toward the SOC will not be affected by the election campaigns of Bosniak politicians such as Elmedin Konaković, Ramo Isak and various people without moral legitimacy and, evidently, without legitimacy within BiH," Lazić said.

He recalled the words of the late Bishop Atanasije /Jevtić/: "There are turmoils, there are storms, but we are not blades of straw."