” “"In Serbia, as well as in several other Eastern European countries, there is the belief that there must be a harmony of relations between the State and the Church, not a divide. To achieve this, there is a Minister for Cult, which supports the presence of the Church within society". This was told by mgr. Stanislaw Hocevar, archbishop of Belgrade and president of the Serbian Bishops Conference, as he met a delegation of CEI (National service for the youth pastoral and Office for Cooperation between the Churches) and Centro Giovanni Paolo II of Loreto, on a tour of the Balkans to promote the "Agora of the Youth of the Mediterranean". "In 2001 he added , the teaching of religion was introduced in primary schools, and it was progressively extended to junior and senior high schools". 61% of students attend the courses of their own religion, as decided with their parents beforehand, while the remaining ones attend ethics courses. Each religious confession (Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim) can draw up its own syllabus, which should be approved by a joint committee, but for the Orthodox congregation "this work is tiresome, because they do not have a tradition of catechism" so that "the teachers are mostly Catholic priests and graduated catechists".” “
