Belgrade, July 13, 2026
Photo: serbiantimes.info
The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church has denounced a ruling by a district court in Ljubljana that handed a suspended sentence to His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije and the Serbian Orthodox parish in Ljubljana, calling the proceedings a “scandalous verdict” issued through an improper summary process.
The court sentenced Pat. Porfirije to a suspended four-month prison term with a one-year probation period and a suspended fine of 10,000 euros ($11,425) over one year; the parish community, named as a co-defendant, received an identical fine, reports metla.mk.
The charges stem from Pat. Porfirije’s tenure as Metropolitan of the Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolis between 2014 and 2021. An indictment filed January 12 alleged he violated the labor rights of priest Željko Lubarda, dismissing him in retaliation for refusing a transfer order after years of alleged psychological pressure. The dispute traces back to an embezzlement case against priest Peran Bošković, which Lubarda had reported at the direction of then-Metropolitan Jovan (Pavlović). Lubarda says Pat. Porfirije later pressured him not to testify. A prior, final ruling from the Ljubljana Labor and Social Court had found Lubarda the victim of one of the most severe harassment cases in Slovenian judicial history, identifying nearly 50 acts, and formed the basis for the criminal complaint. Lubarda says the ordeal left him without income or housing at times and contributed to a recognized disability.
In its statement, the Holy Synod says neither Pat. Porfirije nor his legal representative had been informed that proceedings were underway, and that prosecutors never summoned him to respond to the allegations—a fact the Synod calls unprecedented. It says news of the case reached Serbian media just before this year’s session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops, calling this evidence of a smear campaign against the Church and the Patriarch.
The Synod describes the case as the latest in a series of baseless lawsuits brought by defrocked priest Željko Lubarda, whose conduct it says began under the late Metropolitan Jovan and continued through Pat. Porfirije’s tenure, and which the Synod and Holy Assembly have reviewed and ruled on multiple times before.
Citing legal experts, the Synod says the prosecutor’s office and court disregarded the fact that appointment and transfer of parish priests fall under a bishop’s inalienable canonical rights, in violation of the Agreement on the Legal Status of the Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolis, Slovenia’s Law on Religious Freedom, and a binding opinion of the Constitutional Court, as well as basic rule-of-law principles.
The Holy Synod says it has asked His Holiness not to appeal the verdicts and to continue, as before, not participating in what it calls a Kafkaesque process aimed at the reputation, structure, and dignity of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Patriarch.
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