Officials of the Vatican and Montenegro on Friday signed a landmark agreement regulating relations between the Catholic church and the Balkan state, the first such accord reached with a predominantly Orthodox country.
The agreement guarantees the legal status of the church and its institutions and covers the operation of seminaries and spiritual assistance in the armed forces, prisons and hospitals.
It was signed by Prime Minister Igor Luksic and the Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone at a Vatican ceremony.
Bertone says the Catholic church "was not seeking privileges, certainly not at the expense of other confessions" but sought to define its legal position "for the common good of the country."
Catholics in Montenegro are a tiny minority in the mainly Orthodox Christian population of 680,000 people.
Luksic has been seeking to steer Montenegro, which emerged as an independent nation in 2006 after the dissolution of its short-lived union with Serbia, toward European Union membership.
The government said agreement testifies to the country's commitment to the "fundamental ethical, spiritual and cultural values shared by the Holy See and the entire European community."
While the Holy See has diplomatic relations with a wide range of Orthodox countries, both sides said this was the first such agreement signed by the Vatican and an Orthodox country to regulate church-state relations.
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