Authored by Petrit Latifi

This page is from a 1934 publication, “Orientalia Christiana”, and describes the diocese of Prizren, connected to Skopje and Albania. See how the truth lies about the name of the Skopje-Prizren diocese and how the Serbs are falsifying it to privatize it. Here is the translation of the page:

“The Church of “Serbia”

What appears under this name in Vatican and Propaganda documents is, in fact, the diocese of Prizren or Skopje, which during Ottoman rule was part of the environs of a larger Albania, and even ecclesiastically was in various ways connected to the real Albania, especially because the Catholic population has always been, in its majority, Albanian, and under the influence of Antivar (Tivar).

For this diocese we have a special report by Pietro Mazrek, originally from Prizren, vicar of this bishopric and of Sofia, later archbishop of Antivar. He informed the Propaganda in his capacity as a visitor.
It should be noted first of all that this ecclesiastical province is full of schismatic villages that have a “distorted vision” and feel a special aversion to the Latin Church.

This is mainly due to two reasons: 1) the example of the Greeks, who are honored for their science; 2) the Gregorian calendar, which made them think that the Latin Church invented this new law to divide the “old truth” and unite the people with the Pope in Rome; and it is easy to imagine an ignorant people.

All these schismatics and the places where they live speak Albanian (or a dialect of it) and are called by the Slavs “Raxia” (Rascia). In this part of Serbia, in Bulgaria and partly in Raxi, there are hundreds of thousands of inhabitants who speak Albanian and are Albanians.

Prizren. An old city before the arrival of the Turks and which now numbers about 6000 Catholics, almost all naturalized Albanians, 200 Muslims and a few Orthodox.

Not to mention all the abuses against Catholics, one of the last bishops was persecuted and died by the Turks. It is interesting to note that in 1927 a report on the canonical visitation of Prizren (near the White Drin border with Serbia) stated that the city had about 3000 inhabitants who had come from Serbia. It is from this that Rome complains that Albania is providing for the formation of its clergy in its own way, while Rome neglects this.

This page argues that the diocese of Prizren was historically Albanian both in population and in ecclesiastical ties, and that there have been attempts to present it as part of Serbia for political and religious reasons.”

Reference

Orientalia Christiana, 1934.