At the invitation of the Archbishop of Belgrade, Stanislav Hocevar, the Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Predrag Markovic, today attended the final event to mark the eightieth anniversary of the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Belgrade, and a service of blessing of a carving of Mary the Mother of Concord at the Church of the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Belgrade.

At the service, which was attended by Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox clergy, the Crown Prince Aleksandar II Karadjordjevic, and a large number of the faithful, Mr Markovic said that it gave him great pleasure to be able to share the day’s joy with the congregation. ‘I give thanks to God that He has given me health and the ability to fulfil promises I make, but also that He has given me the faith not to promise that which I cannot fulfil’, Mr Markovic said, adding that the day marked not only the eightieth anniversary of the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Belgrade, but also the fortieth anniversary of the lifting of the anathema between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. ‘I am not at all sure that we remember this date. This reconciliation is not a sign that we should forget, but rather that we should start forgiving. This date must not be forgotten, since people are different, and equal before God and before the law. But laws and decisions adopted by a parliament do not always bring peace. On 7 December 1914, the National Assembly resolved that Serbia would henceforth fight World War I with the ultimate aim of achieving unification of the Southern Slavs; but it was on the same day, in 1946, that the parliament of another country passed a law on nationalisation, which was used to strip people – and churches – of their property. Until this day we have not understood that not all laws and decisions are right. It is up to us to separate the personal from the national, and what we have to do from what we put our hearts into’, Mr Markovic underlined.
‘Laws should ensure that everything is returned to its rightful owner, that there is justice, that a living church exists where its congregation is, that we can share joy, and that where there are no faithful the churches should be reconstructed, as proof that believers once lived there, and that goes for all religions’, Mr Markovic concluded. Reiterating that the National Assembly, as the country’s highest body of government, is giving its contribution to the road towards the European Union, he called on all churches and religious communities to continue to do their share and lead the faithful towards European integrations.