Today, the NGO Montenegro International (MI) addressed His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew with a request to excommunicate Joanikije Mićović from Orthodoxy and stop the attempt of his violent enthronement on the libertarian throne of Saint Peter of Cetinje in Cetinje.
In the request to Patriarch Bartholomew, MI reminds His Holiness Bartholomew that Joanikije Mićović is not worthy of a priest’s uniform, especially not the title of metropolitan of any church, given the accusations of concealing pedophilia and other crimes by SOC representatives.
“Your Holiness, as you know, Montenegrins and our holy Montenegrin Orthodox Church were not slaves of the Ottomans, French, Austrians and Germans throughout history, until the violent abolition of our holy church after the occupation of Montenegro in 1918. We, who are the heirs of the church founded by master Ivan Crnojević on January 4, 1485, are proud descendants of famous heroes who made the Montenegrin church the only free one in the Balkans in the last 500 years, believers of the Montenegrin church written in your holy books as autocephalous, Orthodox believers who follow the sacred vows of Christianity and Orthodoxy, we address you with a request and a plea to excommunicate Joanikije Mićović and other church dignitaries of the Serbian Orthodox Church who protect pedophiles, war criminals and glorify war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, and thus stop the violent an attempt to enthrone Mićović on the libertarian throne of Saint Peter of Cetinje”, it is stated in the letter of MI to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew.
MI reminds that the SOC commission headed by Bishop Joanikije Mićović from Budimlja-Nikšić initiated an investigation in 2012 due to the alleged three cases of pedophilia in the Cetinje Monastery, but this investigation never received an epilogue and was covered up. All allegations indicate that Joanikije and Amfilohije covered up cases of pedophilia for years and that they were never responsible before the law for that, which is why MI filed a criminal complaint with the Special State Prosecutor’s Office on May 9, 2021 against the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and Bishop Joanikije for covering up pedophilia cases within Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as alleged cases of bribery of minors in the Cetinje Monastery and the Dajbabe Monastery. After that on May 14, 2021 the Special State Prosecutor’s Office informed the public that a case had been formed on the basis of a criminal complaint filed by our NGO and that the case is in the investigation phase.
In a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch, MI states that the highest church officials of the Serbian Orthodox Church have known for many years about cases of pedophilia and deception within this religious organization, but all investigations always end in the same way – “pick up material, blackmail each other, then politics intervenes and everything is covered up”. The two cases that shook the Serbian Orthodox Church the most were the cases of Bishops Kacavenda and Pahomije, who, despite all the evidence, were not convicted. For example, Pahomije came into the public spotlight after allegations of sexual abuse of a boy. After several years of trial, two of the four cases became absolutely statute-barred, while the remaining two were acquitted for lack of evidence.
Joanikije Mićović, who manages the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral after the death of Metropolitan Amfilohije and was elected as Serbian Metropolitan in Montenegro by Aleksandar Vučić, talked to the monk Bojan Jovanović, who exposed the pedophile network in the Serbian Orthodox Church, about cases of pedophilia where the priest of the monastery of Dajbabe (Podgorica) Teodosije brought a 13-year-old minor to the monastery of St. Vasilije Ostroški in Bijeljina to sleep with the bishop (Kačavenda).
“Joanikije put it on the record, he said that they knew about that priest and that they had been following him for a long time,” Jovanović told the media. However, that case was also covered up, and the then leader of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, Amfilohije Radović, instead of reporting all that, according to the media, used the cases of pedophilia to blackmail the leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Irinej.
Joanikije, as the portal Aktuelno wrote in 2020, was also involved in the case of another cover-up. As this media wrote, the expelled priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Nikolaj Stamatović, who was stationed (hidden) in Montenegro in the position of abbot of the Zlateš monastery near Bijelo Polje, was the main pimp and a very important person in the pedophile-homosexual network of the Serbian Orthodox Church. According to the media at that time, Stamatović was arrested in front of the SOC Patriarchate in Belgrade in September 2013 for trying to sell a compromising video of former Bishop Kačavenda with four young men. The church leadership wanted to remove Stamatović from the church, but the problem was that he had recordings and films of bishops who had contact with children. After that, Stamatović was transferred to Montenegro. Bishop Joanikije came to Bijeljina and transferred him to Montenegro, where the priest who was accused of spreading pedophilia and pornographic material served until recently in the monastery near Bijelo Polje.
Bojan Jovanović, as a former deacon of the Serbian Orthodox Church, accused the former bishop of the Budimlja-Nikšić of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, Joanikije, of covering up cases of pedophilia in the Serbian Orthodox Church, with the blessing of the late Metropolitan Amfilohije. Speaking about pedophilia within the Serbian Orthodox Church, he said at the promotion of the book “Confession How We Betrayed God” that “by stopping the investigation, Joanikije participated in covering up pedophilia in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro”, and that Amfilohije, “who knew about everything for more than four decades”, participated in reviewing the material.
“We cannot judge Amfilohije because he died, but we must tell the public that this man knew about pedophilia in the Serbian Orthodox Church even while he was the bishop of Banat. I do not consider Mr. Joanikije a bishop. He is the man who was in charge of conducting an investigation into pedophilia about the cases that took place in the Cetinje Monastery, Dajbabe Monastery and other monasteries on the territory of Montenegro in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and who covered up all those cases,” said Jovanovic at the promotion of his book in Cetinje.
MI reminds the Ecumenical Patriarch of the suspicions that nor the Serbian Orthodox Church, neither the state of Serbia, have the will or desire to deal with sexual predators and pedophiles among the clergy, which were fueled by the statement of the deceased Serbian Patriarch Irinej in the case of “Vice Dean and Rape” – Theology Student: Professor Satan raped me. According to the media, Irinej closed down the whole rape affair by saying that he “heard some things, checked, but that he could not get enough confirmation for the accusations of rape.”
Deacon Bojan Jovanović, ie Father Serafim, during his guest appearance on the TV show “Life Story”, revealed that various parties and drunks were held in the court of Kačavenda, as well as that he watched as the abbots tricked the young men. Jovanovic then claimed that he had seen the beating of those who said that the bishop was a pedophile and homosexual.
“Boys without parents were brought in, from poor families, and none of them was allowed to be older than 11,” Jovanovic said on the show.
Jovanovic once asked Bishop Joanikije Micovic “why he is hiding cases of pedophilia”, to which he replied that it was a “dangerous story” and that if it was revealed, “then everyone would be done.”
Jovanovic became known to the general public when he published a book in 2014 in which he exposed the homosexual-pedophile network within the Serbian Orthodox Church. One of the key people in that network was the dismissed Bishop Vasilije Kačavenda, who, according to the allegations from Jovanović’s book, “sexually harassed the monks and asked them to deceive his children”.
“Due to three cases of pedophilia in the Cetinje monastery, the Serbian Orthodox Church allegedly launched an investigation in 2012, but they did not call me to testify in that commission. Then 40 other priests testified. By chance, I came to the session of that commission and met Bishop Jovan Šumadijski, to whom I ‘slapped in the face’ some compromising information, so he recommended me to Bishop Joanikije Mićović, who was the head of the commission as a man who deals with education in the SOC Synod”, explains Jovanovic at the beginning of his confession, which the portal Aktuelno had an insight into (https://www.aktuelno.me/crna-gora/ispovijest-monaha-serafima-1-amfilohije-i-joanikije-zataskavali-opasnu-pricu-o-pedofiliji -u-spc /).
He further states that he met with Joanikije in the Patriarchate in Belgrade, where they opened the topic of pedophilia.
“Joanikije started telling me, swearing at me by St. Peter of Cetinje, by the hand of St. John the Baptist, and I said to that – “Bishop, leave those stories to someone else, I know how pedophilia is organized in the Serbian Orthodox Church and if you want to help, help, if not, to go somewhere else”. Joanikije then offered to take me back to the church to give me the title of deacon, but before he offered me anything else I told him explicitly that he could not bring me back to the church because I belong by to her by my soul and body, and not by blackmails”, said Jovanović and added:
“Everyone in the Synod, including Patriarch Irinej and Amfilohije, watched the recordings and films of pedophile content. Before this investigation, which was launched in 2012, other investigations into pedophilia were conducted, and Amfilihije and Irinej were included in them,” Jovanovic told Aktuelno last year.
After the publication of Bojan Jovanović’s book “Confession How We Betrayed God” and the initiation of proceedings before the Special State Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro, the NGO Montenegro International informed the international community and submitted the English edition of the book, which it did as attachment to the letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch, too. The book is a poignant testimony to the persecution and martyrdom of people who are daily victims, not only of rapists and intruders in mantles, but also of the system that protects such people. In his book, Jovanović provides an abundance of material evidence of crimes that modern humanity can hardly understand, such as:
– How scandals and criminal acts are covered up in the Serbian Orthodox Church.
– How the victims became victims of the state system.
– The case of the murder of the boy Milić Blažanović in the SOC monastery.
– How the falsely elected patriarchs were elected by the state security service.
– How the system is deeply rooted in corruption and lawlessness.
– How priests and bishops distorted Orthodoxy so that they could live comfortably at the expense of the naive people.
– and much more, including statements and copies of police records that never reached prosecutors’ offices in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The book also shows the malicious influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church on Montenegro, as well as the hypocrisy of the SOC leadership, which demands a ban on the Pride Parade, while on the same day it rewards proven pedophiles in its ranks and their protectors.
The topic of pedophilia within the Serbian Orthodox Church was also addressed by the Codex AlJazeere Balkans show:
In addition to Bishop Joanikije Mićović, MI asked the Ecumenical Patriarch to excommunicate other high church officials of the Serbian Orthodox Church who participated in covering up numerous crimes within this allegedly religious organization, such as Serbian Patriarch Porfirije, Bishop of Bačka Irinej Bulović, Metropolitan Chrysostom of Dabro-Bosnia, Bishop Gregory of Düsseldorf, Bishop Dositej of Great Britain and Scandinavia, Bishop Fotije of Zvornik and Tuzla, Bishop Jovan of Slavonia and Pakrac, Bishop Gerasim of Gornji Karlovac and others, who use Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) contrary to the canons of Orthodoxy and the commandments of God.
Along with the letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch, MI submitted numerous pieces of evidence about the church-political mafia which rules the Serbian Orthodox Church: “The Satanist Orthodox Church (SOC) operates under the Serbian Orthodox Church’s auspices (SOC) as its hidden but integral part. They are so permeated and interwoven that it is no longer possible to know who the mother is and who the daughter is. These two religious organizations have overlapped to such an extent that even the believers themselves cannot distinguish them, so they are not sure whether, participating in religious rites, they worship God or the devil“, wrote Serbian journalist Tomislav Markovic in an article published on Antena M: “Traps of Religious Sects: A Handbook for Self-Defense.”
In the letter, MI reminds of the carcinogenic activities of the top of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is one of the main ideological culprits for numerous crimes and ethnic cleansing in the Western Balkans in the past 100 years.
“Based on Svetosavlje (St. Sava cult), this religious organization is anything but religious – its activities are characterized by violation of almost all God’s commandments that it allegedly refers to, connection with intelligence and criminal circles that have been creating instability in the region for decades and are one of the causes of the last war in the former Yugoslavia. Of particular concern are the activities of this clerical-fascist organization, which, like a satanic cult, creates blindness in its followers based on hatred and atrocities against individuals who often remain hidden from the public,” the letter reads.
MI reminds the Ecumenical Patriarch that the accusations they cite are not accusations against the Serbian Orthodox Church as a religious organization, but against individuals at its top who, as part of a combination of religious, criminal, intelligence and political circles, have taken over the Church and the state of Serbia and are now trying to do the same with Montenegro and most of the Western Balkans region, which could lead to new bloodshed in this area.
“The truth about the crimes of Saint Sava’s ideology within the Serbian Orthodox Church should contribute to the final liberation of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbia and the entire region from the bearers of evil that threatens the collective security and human destinies of many who became victims of this criminal group. The Ecumenical Patriarchate and You Holiness have a special role and responsibility, and therefore we ask you to approach this letter and the evidence we are submitting to you with due care”, concludes the letter of MI to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew.
