The Montenegrin Orthodox Church informs the public that it has received Decision No. UPUPV-10-081/23-85/41 of the Ministry of Justice, dated 29 June 2026, rejecting as unfounded the request submitted by Bojan (Boris) Bojović to remove Metropolitan Mihailo as the Head and authorized representative of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church and to register Bojović in his place.

Anyone with even a basic level of literacy can see that Bojović requested that Metropolitan Mihailo be retired and stripped of his ecclesiastical functions, and that Bojović be appointed Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and Head of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

If such a request were not tragic, it would be ridiculous. It asks a state authority to assume ecclesiastical authority and create an office that was not acquired in accordance with the Constitution of the Church and the decisions of its competent bodies. The Decision therefore exposes the legal ignorance and ecclesiastical untenability of the entire attempt.

The state register may record a lawfully adopted ecclesiastical decision, but it cannot create one. The Ministry of Justice does not elect, consecrate or enthrone a metropolitan. Its jurisdiction is not to decide who is worthy of ecclesiastical office, but to verify whether a request to change the authorized representative arises from the valid autonomous acts of the religious community.

The Decision was issued in renewed proceedings, in execution of a judgment of the Administrative Court of Montenegro and following supplementary evidentiary proceedings. The Ministry established that Bojović’s request was not grounded in the Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities, the Constitution of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church or other binding ecclesiastical acts. The Decision states that the dignity of Metropolitan is held for life, that the Church is governed by the Holy Synod until the election of a new Head, and that the election is conducted according to the procedure prescribed by the Constitution.

There are several reasons why the Montenegrin Orthodox Church is justified in considering the true motives behind this attempt.

The first reason is the continuous denial of Metropolitan Mihailo, his office and his free will. Who could imagine asking the Ministry of Justice to retire Metropolitan Mihailo against his will, even though he neither consented to his dismissal nor, as the sole authorized representative, submitted such a request, but instead expressly challenged Bojović’s claims during the proceedings?

Metropolitan Mihailo was neither prevented from governing the Church nor deprived of the capacity to decide independently about his office. He was alive, active, in full health and capable of stating his position, which he did during the proceedings. Nevertheless, Bojović attempted to declare his will nonexistent and to secure his removal through the state. What kind of cleric seeks to annul the free will of a person created in the image and likeness of God?

The second reason is the attempt to nullify the Holy Synod, the principal body of ecclesiastical authority. The Synod is not a body created subsequently or arbitrarily. Its place in the institutional order was established by the 1904 Constitution of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church and has been preserved to this day. Bojović is therefore attacking not merely a single decision, but more than a century of the constitutional and synodal continuity of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

The election of bishops and metropolitans is decided by the ecclesiastical bodies designated by the Constitution. The Ministry cannot replace the Synod, the Electoral Council or the will of the Church. If there is no decision by the competent ecclesiastical body appointing a metropolitan, there is no decision that the state can record.

It is particularly deplorable that Bojović is attempting to suspend the same ecclesiastical order under which he was appointed Vicar Bishop in 2019. In its Decision, the Ministry refers to that act, by which Bojović was appointed Vicar Bishop, subordinate to the competent bishop and without the right independently to establish ecclesiastical units or claim a higher office.

The validity of the Constitution cannot be accepted when episcopal dignity is acquired under it and rejected when it does not permit self-proclamation as Metropolitan. Through such conduct, Bojović denies the Church, its Head, the Synod and everyone who participated in his consecration, while simultaneously attempting to appropriate the highest office of that same Church.

The third reason is the attempt to present a gathering of approximately five hundred people as the “All-Montenegrin Assembly” and place it above the Metropolitan, the Synod, the Constitution and the entire Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

This gathering was neither convened by Metropolitan Mihailo nor held pursuant to a decision of the Synod or any other competent ecclesiastical body. Such a gathering cannot be equated with the Montenegrin Assembly in its historical sense, as the representative body of all Montenegrins, their brotherhoods, tribes and leaders. A gathering of five hundred supporters of one candidate does not become a historical national institution merely because its organizers appropriated that institution’s name.

The symbolic act of placing a panakamilavka on someone’s head does not constitute an election, consecration or enthronement and cannot produce any canonical or legal effect. This brings us to the essence of the attempt: the Montenegrin Orthodox Church is nullified as an institution, its Head, Constitution and Synod are abolished, while its name, authority and metropolitan office are simultaneously appropriated. The Church is recognized only when it is needed to justify a previously acquired position, but denied when its bodies do not confirm a new personal ambition.

Finally, the proceedings before the Ministry of Justice were not initiated by the Montenegrin Orthodox Church, but by Bojan Bojović. The campaign against the Ministry of Justice and the Directorate for Relations with Religious Communities is therefore scandalous. This is all the more so because three Ministers of Justice issued identical decisions confirming that the requested change was grounded neither in the law nor in the binding acts of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

Instead of presenting legal and ecclesiastical arguments, ministers and assistant ministers are discredited on ideological and national grounds and labelled “Chetniks” and “litija supporters.” However, it is entirely justified to ask why Bojović is requesting that the very people whom he portrays and insults in this manner proclaim him Metropolitan. If a minister were to accept his request, would that decision, according to the same logic, suddenly become proper and legitimate? Does the legitimacy of a state authority depend solely on whether it satisfies someone’s personal ambition? But what can be expected from someone who, in the same manner, discredits and humiliates all members of the Church who have stood in the way of his sick ambitions?

The Decision of the Ministry of Justice confirms a simple fact: the Montenegrin Orthodox Church is no one’s private property, and its metropolitan office cannot be appropriated by an individual, an improvised gathering or a media campaign.

They cannot abolish the Church in order to take over its name. They cannot nullify the Constitution of 1904 in order to invoke its authority. They cannot deny the Metropolitan and the Synod and then demand that the state proclaim them the ecclesiastical authority.

The complete text of the Decision of the Ministry of Justice will be made available to the public together with this statement.

Cetinje, 22 July 2026

Archbishop of Cetinje and
Metropolitan of Montenegro

† M I H A I L O, signed