“Patriarch's death reveals people want modest leadership”

BELGRADE -- The funeral of Patriarch Pavle showed that the people want their leaders to show humility and modesty in these tough times, a B92 TV talk show heard.

“Patriarch's death reveals people want modest leadership”

BELGRADE -- The funeral of Patriarch Pavle showed that the people want their leaders to show humility and modesty in these tough times, a B92 TV talk show heard.

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Marković reminded that surveys from 2000 onward show that the Church is the most popular institution in the country, which is why the fact that close to 700,000 people attended the funeral is not surprising.

Marković said that Patriarch Pavle was “the personification of virtue and lived in accordance with his beliefs, and the values which he preached.”

Vreme weekly editor-in-chief Dragoljub Žarković, also a guest on the program, said that “people who live in difficult times want to identify with someone, they are looking for solace and they found it in the patriarch, and rightly so.”

Žarković saw the funeral was the “personification of the people’s desire to have a humble and modest leadership, because the government in Serbia is the complete opposite of what Patriarch Pavle represented.”

Philosophy professor Ljubiša Rajić, however, said that "in addition to true believers", many people who admired the patriarch's modesty attended the funeral, “paying respects more to him than to the Church.”

Rajić said that by displaying the Patriarch in an open casket violated the law, and that be directly participating in the organization and proclamation of the three days of mourning and the added day of mourning in Belgrade, the government violated article 11 of the constitution which defines Serbia has a secular state.

Rajić leveled criticism at the SPC and the state leadership, saying that the patriarch's lying in repose was "against the law", that the Constitution was broken in where it defines Serbia as a secular state because of the days of mourning declared, that President Boris Tadić "should not have made addresses after meetings of the Holy Synod and at the funeral", and that the military and police participation in the funeral procession was "unnecessary".

Marković disagreed, stating that according to the Law on Religious Communities in Serbia, the Serbian Orthodox Church is defined as the institution with the most historical, civilization and spiritual significance to the national identity of the Serb people, and did not see anything wrong with three days of mourning being announced in the wake of the death of its leader.

This historian said that Tadić did not attend the meeting of the Holy Synod, but came to give his condolences and announce which officials would attend the funeral.

Žarković also said that he does not believe that Tadić violated the Constitution or abused his position, because he paid his respects to the religious head of the largest church in Serbia.

He reminded that 85 percent of the Serbian population declare themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians. For that reason, the editor said, it is not illogical or immoral to proclaim days of mourning in the country, or for the president, prime minister and government ministers to appear at the funeral.