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Published by
The National
Herald,
September 3, 2005
FYROM Rejects
Appeal to Free Serbian Bishop |
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SKOPJE (AP) – The Macedonian Government rejected
an appeal by the spiritual leader of the world's
Orthodox Christians to release a former bishop
jailed for inciting religious hatred.
In a letter to
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of
Constantinople, Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado
Buckovski said he had no power to intervene in
the case, which has strained Macedonia's
relations with neighboring Serbia.
A Macedonian
court jailed a Serbian cleric, Jovan
Vraniskovski, last month for two and a half
years for holding services for loyalists of the
Serbian Orthodox Church and inciting religious
hatred.
"The judicial
power in my country is entirely independent,"
Buckovski said in the letter made public on
August 25. "I am unable to order the release of
Mr. Vraniskovski, who violated the law."
Russian
Patriarch Alexy II has also urged Macedonia to
free the priest.
The Macedonian
Orthodox Church, which is not recognized outside
the small Balkan country, broke from the Serbian
church in 1967. At the time, both countries were
still part of Yugoslavia, from which Macedonia
became independent in 1991.
The Serbian
Orthodox Church offered to accept the Macedonian
community back into its fold in 2002, with some
autonomy. But the idea was rejected by the
Macedonian Church – except for Bishop Jovan.
He has since been ostracized in Macedonia,
stripped of his ecclesiastical rank, and is now
officially referred to by Macedonian authorities
only by his secular name, Zoran Vraniskovski.
Serbian officials continue to call him Bishop
Jovan.
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