The Serbian Orthodox Church elder said on Tuesday he still did not think it was time for Pope's visit to Serbia, the Blic daily reported.

Patriarch Irinej said that in his meeting with the Vatican state secretary Pietro Parolin Pope’s visit was not on the agenda, adding they had talked about some other issues.

“I have already said what I think, and I haven’t changed my mind,” Irinej told Blic newspaper.

He said earlier this year that the time for Pope Francis’ visit had not come yet. “The majority of people are against it because of what had happened in the past and because of the huge number of (the Serbs) expelled from Croatia.”

He referred to the World War II during which Croatia established a Nazi puppy state and death camps for non-Croats and even Croats who opposed the regime, as well as to the latest armed conflict during the break-up of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s when an estimated 200,000 Serbs fled Croatia.

The Serb Church maintains that Pope should first pay respect to the victims killed in Jasenovac death camp during the WW II and then come to Belgrade.

However, the atmosphere has recently warmed up a bit since the Vatican has not recognised Kosovo’s independence and has not canonised the Bishop of Zagreb during the World War II Alojzije Stepinac who is said to have approved many crimes against the Serbs.

Though both Christian, the Croatian Roman Catholic and Serbian Orthodox churches have inherited hostile relations that started after the 1054 Great Schism which divided the Christianity into the Western and Eastern part.

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