Although it is a well-known Slovenian tradition that the opening ceremonies of important acquisitions in certain places, especially in rural areas, which are of great importance to the local population, are accompanied by a blessing, the magazine Mladina made some critical comments about the recent blessing of the new bypass road in Železniki.
Last Friday, the bypass in Železniki, for which the inhabitants have been waiting for decades, was put into temporary use by Mayor Marko Gasser and the Minister of Infrastructure Alenka Bratušek. For now, the road will only be used temporarily, because it does not yet have a permit for use, but its use will make a significant contribution to improving traffic flow before the start of the new school year.
The opening of the bypass, which was attended, among others, by the President of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, Marko Lotrič, MP of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), Žan Mahnič, and the Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Luka Mesec, was followed by a blessing by the parish priest, Tine Skok, which is a custom that is an undeniable part of Slovenia’s cultural heritage. However, the magazine Mladina decided to criticise it and quoted the opinion of the sociologist of religion, Dr Marjan Smrkej, who believes that, “if the blessing was part of a state event to open a public road, it was an impermissible ‘detour’ around Article 7 of the Slovenian Constitution, which stipulates the separation of the state and religious communities.” Referring to the 2002 document Choose Life, he added: “The blessing of a public building is nothing other than a magical rite.”
The blessing was not even part of the official event
According to the article published by Mladina, they were apparently not pleased by the Mayor of Železniki’s answer that “the blessing was performed after the official part of the event,” and that the Minister of Infrastructure did not object to the performance of the ceremony. The Mayor also explained that the Catholic religious community is the most active in Železniki, while several other religious communities are also active there.
“For centuries, blessings have traditionally been celebrated in the Catholic faith on the occasion of major acquisitions for local communities, and it was no different for the opening of the bypass road, for which the citizens had been waiting for 70 years,” Mayor Gasser explained, adding that if the Catholic Church were to be excluded from public life, “this would result in the exercise of the constitutional right to freedom of religion, which is guaranteed both individually and collectively, being blocked.” He also stressed that he saw the blessing of the bypass as “following a centuries-old tradition and respect for the religious community, whose functioning is guaranteed by the Constitution.”
MP Mahnič: common sense is still alive and well in the countryside
MP Žan Mahnič also criticised Mladina’s denunciation, writing on the social network X: “Common sense is still alive and well in the countryside. Here, we have customs and traditions that were cultivated by our great-grandparents, and we continue to cultivate them. We have always blessed and will continue to bless important new developments for our citizens, and Luka Woke, Marjan Smrke and the rest of the anarcho-liberals can stand on their heads in protest if they want!” In addition, Mahnič is far from being the only one who was bothered by all of this. “This is our tradition; we have it, and we want it to remain the same in the future. There will be a few more blessings: the first one will be the retention basin under Suša, we will also bless the Podrošt-Sorica road towards Soriška planina… And there were so many well-known media outlets present at the event. Thank you for being there for the blessing,” reads, for example, one of the comments that was also published on the social network X.
Ž. N.
