ZAGREB, 28 February, 2021 - By visiting the Jasenovac convent, Patriarch Porfirije is telling the Serb people where its identity is, the Serbian Orthodox bishop of Pakrac and Slavonia said on Sunday ahead of a visit by the new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).
"The Serb people's identity has two wings, one is the Kosovo and the other the Jasenovac wing. That's what defines our people and our Church and that's what Patriarch Porfirije recognises," Bishop Jovan said outside the convent ahead of the arrival of Porfirije and the Serb member of the Bosnian Presidency, Milorad Dodik.
Also present were about 100 believers from Croatia and the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska.
Porfirije will not visit the Jasenovac Memorial Site today. Jasenovac was a WWII Ustasha death camp. Bishop Jovan said he would do so on another occasion.
"It's very important to understand that we are not a parallel institution to the Memorial Site. We are not creating a parallel museum and a parallel memorial site," he said, adding that the Memorial Site "is complementary to our convent. It's very important that everyone does their job."
The SPC and the authorities of Republika Srpska and Serbia have renovated a church in nearby Mlaka, where children from the Kozara mountain were killed in WWII.
The renovation of a former Ustasha headquarters has also been announced, with Bishop Jovan saying it would consist of a "whole complex dedicated to the Kozara children as well as a complex for works of art inspired by Jasenovac."
He reiterated what former SPC Patriarch German said, that "one must forgive, but not forget."
"That doesn't leave out all the other victims... Jasenovac is a very broad subject that can't be defined and explained just like that," said the bishop.
Currently, the convent is home to eight nuns.
