Patriarch Irinej - "Kosovo is our incurable wound."

Patriarch Irinej

(spc.rs) - The First hierarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch visited yesterday Linz in Upper Austria, the city where 7000 Serbs live. Patriarch served the Divine Liturgy in the church of St. Basil of Ostrog.

Serbian Patriarch was concelebrated, besides competent hierarch, His Grace Bishop Konstantin of Middle Europe, His Beatitude Jovan, Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje, and Their Graces Bishop Fotije of Dalmatia and Vicar Bishop Antonije of Moravica. Besides bishops, in the service of the Divine Liturgy also fourteen priests and deacons participated. There were also present dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church, bishop of the Diocese of Linz Ludwig Schwarz and former bishop Maximilian Eichern. Representatives of the authorities of the state of Upper Austria and the City of Linz were also present as well as consul Zoran Jeremic from Linz and consul Jelica Dimitrijevic from Salzburg.

His Holiness with Cardinal Schönborn

In Austrian media positions of His Holiness were positively received, who is firmly committed to inter-church dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church and the accession of Serbia to the European Union, but firmly advocates of Serbdom of Kosovo and Metohija.

After the lunch in the premises of the Church municipality of Linz, the high delegation of the SOC visited Mauthausen, where a graveyard from the First World War is located. Then in the Mauthausen prison camp 8000 Serbs died. His Holiness consecrated a land on which an Orthodox graveyard's chapel would be built. After that His Holiness came back to Vieanna, where he visited the church of the Resurrection of Christ. Serbian Patriarch was accompanied then with Bishop Michael of Geneve and Western Europe of the Russian Orthodox Church.