Cetinje, Montenegro, January 3, 2025
Photo: spc.rs
A gunman in Cetinje, Montenegro killed 12 people including two children before taking his own life on Wednesday, January 1. The shooter began his rampage following a bar brawl, killing the bar owner, the owner’s children, and several of his own family members including his sister. The shooting spree took place across six different locations, before 45-year-old Aco Martinović shot himself.
The government declared three days of national mourning starting January 2, and all New Year’s festivities were canceled across the country. This tragic incident marks the second mass shooting in Cetinje in recent years.
His Eminence Metropolitan Joanikije, the primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Metropolis of Montenegro, expressed his condolences:
Regarding the terrible tragedy that occurred today in Cetinje, where a citizen from Bajice killed 12 people, including children, we hereby express our most sincere condolences to the families of the victims in their immense grief.
We call upon all Orthodox Christians and people of good will to raise their prayers to God for the repose of the souls of the deceased, for the restoration of disturbed peace in Cetinje, and for the healing of those wounded in this tragedy.
We support all efforts of the competent state authorities and expect that they will quickly and efficiently establish order in this city and ensure complete security for all its inhabitants.
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia also expressed his condolences to Met. Joanikije, emphasizing the need for a return to Christian values:
The gift of life is an invaluable treasure since every human being is called into this world through God’s wisdom and love. Therefore, we feel a deep need, due to yesterday’s terrible event in ancient and glorious Cetinje, the seat of your sacred diocese, in which twelve people lost their lives, to ask Your Eminence to convey our prayerful condolences and paternal concern to the faithful people there and to the relatives of the victims.
With you and all brother hierarchs of our holy Church, we share great concern over the fact that this is one in a series of very tragic events that have recently occurred in the close fraternal and nearby geographical area. These pre-Nativity days show us all that only a fundamental return to Christian values and way of life, embodied in Cetinje by the ancient lavra of St. Peter, can bring spiritual peace and reliable judgment in moments of personal and general crises and trials.
In this frightening flood of sorrow, we pray for the repose of the souls of the innocently suffered children of God, while our prayerful eyes remain fixed on the faces of the families of the victims. May Christ comfort and strengthen their grieving hearts, and may He illuminate the souls of the departed with the light of His eternal Kingdom and grant them eternal rest.
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