Authentic writings about Concordat from 1886 in first joint book of Montenegro and Holy See

Culture Minister Aleksandar Bogdanović paid a working visit to the Holy See, during which he talked to the Vatican with the Under-secretary for Relations with the States of the Secretariat of the Holy See, Mgr Antoine Camilleri and Director of the Historical Archives of the Holy See, Johan Ickx.

The meeting with the Mgr Antoine Cammilleri discussed the continuation of cooperation in the field of culture between Montenegro and the Holy See.

During the conversation, the interlocutors concluded that the recently organised visits of the State Secretary of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin to Montenegro and the President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović to the Holy See, represent an important step in strengthening the relations of our countries, and stated that he is convinced that the announced opening of the Nunciature of the Holy See in Montenegro will soon be realised.

Minister Bogdanović emphasised the special importance of activities for issuing the first book from the edition of documents on Montenegro from the Vatican archives, which should be completed this year.

"It is a book that will contain authentic correspondences and negotiations when signing the Concordat in 1886, which represents the basis of historical relations between Montenegro and the Catholic Church, but also testifies to the proud and rich multicultural and multi-confessional history of Montenegro. This will be the first edition of the books that we will be published and which will contain documents that testify to the rich and meaningful relations between Montenegro and the Holy See," Minister Bogdanović said.

During the visit to the Vatican, Minister Bogdanović also had a working meeting with the director of the Historical Archives Johan Ickx, who expressed satisfaction that Montenegro and the Holy See continued the cooperation initiated during the last year's meeting in Rome and confirmed during the stay of mr Ickx in Montenegro last November.

Minister Bogdanović expressed his great satisfaction with the possibility of accessing an impressive archival material of over 1.5 million digitised documents, which is located in the Historical Archives of the Secretariat of the Holy See, and pointed out that the project of collecting archival material will be of great importance for further research and documentation of the history of Montenegro.

The meeting was an opportunity to specify further activities in the realisation of the project of gathering material on Montenegro, available in the Historical Archive of the Holy See, and highlighted the important recent formation of Montenegrin historian teams who will stay in the Vatican and, through the availability of their archives, certainly contribute to the illumination of lesser known fact about the history of Montenegro. The meeting defined the future way of work, the composition of the team of Montenegrin historians and agreed that the presentation of the book that will be published, will be realised in Montenegro and the Vatican.

Minister Bogdanović expressed his satisfaction at the meeting that the cooperation between the Montenegrin institutions and the Historical Archives of the Holy See was supported by the highest state officials of the two countries.

The visit to the Vatican was also an opportunity for a meeting with Giacomo Zucconi, the Secretary General of the Sant’Egidio Community.

Minister Bogdanović emphasised the belief that the previously defined cooperation in the signed Memorandum of Cooperation between Montenegro and the Community Sant’Egidio would be a good basis for the implementation of concrete projects.

In this sense, the readiness of the interlocutors to be announced is to organise an international Youth Conference on Ecumenism at the beginning of next year in Montenegro, jointly organised by the Ministry of Culture and the Community of Sant'Egidio. Minister Bogdanović also sent an official invitation to the President of the ZSE, Mr Marc Impagliazzo, to visit Montenegro in the upcoming period, which was accepted with satisfaction.

Meetings, which once again confirmed the quality of relations between Montenegro and the Holy See, represented the continuation of talks held last year at the highest level, and were also attended by the Ambassador of Montenegro to the Holy See Miodrag Vlahović and the director of the National Museum of Montenegro Anastazija Miranović.