Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro Mihailo attended today, 11 July, the commemoration marking the 31st anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, held at the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center.

His presence in Potočari carries particular historical significance. In 2005, Metropolitan Mihailo was, by all accounts, the first head of any Orthodox Church to visit Srebrenica, doing so together with Idriz Demirović, representative of the Islamic Religious Community of Montenegro, and the Catholic priest Branko Zbutega. That act also marked the first joint tribute to the genocide’s victims paid by representatives of all three faiths present in Montenegro.

In a statement to media gathered in Potočari, the Metropolitan said the Memorial Center represents a place from which messages of peace should be sent and where people should learn to live together. He noted that he has attended the commemoration since 2005, with the exception of the pandemic period, marking twenty-one years of his presence at this place of suffering this year. “As long as I am able, I will keep coming here,” he said, describing Potočari as a great holy site whose significance extends beyond Srebrenica to all of Europe, and to the Balkans in particular, so that people might learn to live as human beings.

Referring to the recent session of the Parliament of Montenegro devoted to marking the anniversary, he assessed that the facts of the crime committed are increasingly being acknowledged in Montenegro as well. Speaking on the significance of the many years of commemorating 11 July, he expressed the impression that people in Bosnia and Herzegovina are increasingly awakening to and becoming aware of the need to preserve their state, telling them that he stands with them even when he cannot come in person.

On this occasion, the Montenegrin Orthodox Church draws public attention to the fact that the group surrounding the defrocked layman Bojan Bojović, who persistently and without any basis presents himself as Metropolitan of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, was once again this year not part of the Church’s official delegation in Potočari, and, as was the case last year, remained outside the commemoration. The Holy Archiepiscopal Synod rejects any statements issued by that group in the name of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church as unauthorized and false. The sole lawful Primate and representative of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, also entered as such in the register of the competent state authority, is Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro Mihailo.

While the Montenegrin Orthodox Church and its Primate are received with respect by foreign embassies and international institutions, it is precisely in Montenegro that certain circles continue to deny it the place that rightfully belongs to it, leaving the Metropolitan to carry his witness of faith, truth, and reconciliation as a kind of Calvary from which, in a community that knows and values him, he ought to be spared.

Photo: V. D./Klix.ba/Vijesti.ba

Cetinje, 11 July 2026

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