The state to protect the property of the Catholic Church and historical monuments in Cape Rodon

By Romeo Gurakuqi

Those who have wanted to destroy this country in modern times have always had the formula and human resources ready to make it happen, without the need to bring troops and build sophisticated strategies.

In Albania, there are always "volunteer teams", "Holy Legions", "volunteer agents" who easily get into action, stand up against the flag, the Albanian language, the state, institutions, national identity, cultural heritage that makes us proud, cultural monuments, to the heroes of the tradition whose memory has shaped us, to the public property, to our European history and being.

I recall here how the Assadists, re-centered in Durres, rivaled in a deadly way the national government of Ismail Qemali, Dom NIkoll Kaçorri, Luigj Gurakuq and the state-forming fathers, or how the deformed Vorio-Epirotist and Ottomanist renegades hit the internationally recognized Albanian Principality, destroyed the built Albania with so much effort from the Renaissance with Austro-Hungarian support.

Meanwhile, we all experience the disappearance of the nation's elite in 1945-1949, as if we still have the echo of 1997, when within a few days, the internal political leadership, the servants of those who wanted a weak and fragmented Albanian state , the controllers of a state that was built backward institutionally, politically and nationally, turned the country upside down with a dizzying speed, from the South to the North.

These days, while in the Parliament there is a desperate clash with distant shots against the efforts to rebuild a just state, in Cape Rodoni, where the Castle built by Gjergj Kastrioti, the national hero, the ruins of several monasteries and churches are located the old Roman-Gothic church of Shna Ndout, all the properties of the Franciscan Province of Albania, part of the Catholic Church, a new destructive battle is taking place, against the established right, our national heritage, a part of the proud history and the rights of religious communities.

And it is not a battle between the Historical Owners and the State, but it is a clash between the claimants for possession, while the State, the Ministry of Culture, the State Police take care, or only perform post factum judicial actions.

This kind of dangerous drama happens only in Albania when the dalezots that grow out of nothing, turn into the protagonists of the processes in which the regulator should be the state that does not exist.

This is not the first attack on Cape Rodoni.

On September 8, 2020, this national sanctuary was surrounded for hours by flames from unidentified arsonists.

At that time I wrote that: we are talking about arson against historical monuments of special importance, against a building, which belongs to the Romanesque-Gothic architecture of the century. XIII, which is located near the Castle of Skanderbeg; it is about the erasure from the hillside of a famous cape with so much history, of a surrounding forest massif, property of the Catholic Church (Albanian Franciscan Province), by arsonists and professional robbers.

In fact, the event of 2020, like this of these last days, is part of the "daily and unstoppable approach of land grabbers on the coast around Cape Rodon", the areas in the South and North of this natural wealth and cultural.

What surprised me the most in this whole story today was the profiling of the parties to this conflict and the waste of taxes and legal limits of activity by the holders of the Franciscan Province, who, after the fires of 2020, have signed business contracts. (if the news is true)!!!!

In my opinion, this is unacceptable.

I believe that no one has had the right to enter into contractual actions that bring civilians and secular private individuals closer to a church property, which is also a monument of our national culture.

I think that the intervention in many ways, of the Episcopal Conference in this case, should be immediate, either in the restoration of the right that belongs to the Catholic Church, or in the protection of a site of our history, near which no one but the authorities have a job scientific, cultural and state protection ones.

Once again, I want to repeat that what is happening in these hours in Cape Rodoni should put all the specialized structures of the State on alert and into action, starting from the Police, the Ministry of Culture, the Authority of Cults.

A week ago I was in Kosovo and visited Ulpiana, where excavations continued for the complete discovery of the Iustiniana Secunda Basilica and the Episcopal Palace. What impressed me was the special care of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo. The protection of the Ancient City of Dardan, in addition to the sworn civil guards, was also carried out by the Kosovo State Police with 24-hour service.

Even though we have 111 years of state life, Albania should learn from the state builders and the exercisers of governmental functions of the Republic of Kosovo in the protection of the national heritage.