His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Mr. On June 8, 2024, Porfirije attended the joint session of the governments of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, where the draft Declaration on the Protection of National and Political Rights and the Common Future of the Serbian People was adopted, and on that occasion he said:

- Honorable Mr. President of the Republic of Serbia, Honorable Mr. President of the Republic of Srpska, brother bishops, all in order and honor, I will not say much, because everything I had to say I already said in the Church of Saint Sava after the prayer that was the beginning of this assembly, which is only natural and normal if we want the parliament to be a real parliament, and this is the parliament of our Serbian people.

Every nation has its stamp, its uniqueness, that is. own identity, and identity is a spiritual category. Depending on what the spiritual identity is, that is to say, what it is and what root it is, everything else and every other kind of identity will also depend. The spiritual identity of the Serbian people to this day is sealed by Christ, the Orthodox faith, the Gospel of Christ and, as we often say today, Gospel values. In that, our nation is one and unique both spatially and diachronically. Therefore, to what my predecessors said, and especially the President of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Aleksandar Vučić, underlining the fundamental importance of the economy, without which there is no security and no security, I would add another equally important factor, which is spiritual identity. It is very important to be who we are, because we may be able to provide everything externally, but if we are not there then it is an empty nut shell. In this sense, not only like any other nation, we have the right to gather, to assemble and to testify to who we are and what we are, to testify to our identity, but we also have the obligation to do so if we want to exist and be us. .

As I said in the temple, we gather not against anyone, and we have never gathered against anyone, but we gather for; to be who we are; to multiply the gifts we received from God for His glory; so that without fear and without complexes, knowing who we are and what we are, we enter into a creative and fruitful dialogue with everyone who is around us and who is with us, so that we would then be able to enrich them with ourselves, by multiplying what is ours, as well as, of course, always being open, enriching ourselves with them. We gather so that by supporting each other we would be better to ourselves, to be better among ourselves, to be better to others who are called to be our neighbors, whom we are also called to see as neighbors, in a word, to be better to God.

We gather for prayer. We begin the assembly with a prayer that we may be united in virtue, in good, in readiness to understand each other mutually, to be able to accept each other even when we have different views on certain issues and topics; we come together to understand that we are needed and indispensable to each other. That's why I pray to God that this assembly of ours, like every assembly that aims for good, will always be blessed by God. Thank you.

Source: SPC