The Pula-based Abbazia d.o.o. company, established by the Benedictine Abbey of Praglia, Italy, has not been registered in the land registry in Buje to evidence its title over the real estate and grounds of the Dajla monastery, the spokeswoman for the Buje municipal court, Slavica Tomac-Ciric, said on Monday.
According to the spokeswoman, only a request for advance registration was made pertaining to the Dajla monastery and other real estate, and the process may resume only after the settlement of the dispute and the lawsuit launched by Abbazia d.o.o. against seven defendant parties, including the Diocese of Porec and Pula, the parish of Dajla, the town of Novigrad, and the Republic of Croatia.
"A hearing in the case is scheduled for 19 September, and only after this civil action is brought to a conclusion will it be known to whom the monastery and its grounds belong. The court should first establish whether it has jurisdiction over the case, and other issues, such as the enforcement of the Osimo Accords, denationalisation, and the cannon law should be checked. This is a very complex matter," Tomac-Ciric said.
She said that Abbazia d.o.o. had requested the registration of their title over the monastery but the request was turned down because one power of attorney was invalid.
The court has received a motion for the registration of the agreement between the Porec-Pula Diocese, the Dajla parish, the Abbey of Praglia and Abbazia d.o.o., but the agreement was not entered into the land registry and the land registry only includes a notice about the lawsuit, the spokeswoman said.
Porec Bishop Ivan Milovan declined to sign the agreement in question. The dignitary said that he believed that a right solution would be found which would adhere to bilateral agreements between the former Yugoslavia and Italy, that is the Osimo Accords.
On 2 August, the Holy See's press office responded on its web site to media reports about the dispute which began after Italian Benedictine monks requested restitution of the Dajla monastery in the Porec diocese, saying that this was a church matter and that the Bishop of Porec and Pula, Ivan Milovan, had refused to sign the agreement on property restitution.
After he initially agreed to negotiate with the Italian Benedictines in order to achieve an inter-Church settlement of the dispute, Milovan refused to sign the said agreement. Therefore, the Holy Father on 6 July 2011 appointed Msgr. Santos Abril y Castelló as an 'ad actum' commissioner replacing the local church authority in the matter, so that the dispute could finally be settled, the Holy See said in the statement.
According to Croatian media reports, the Pope briefly suspended Bishop Milovan so that the Spanish bishop could sign the agreement regulating relations between the Dajla parish and the Italian Benedictine Abbey of Praglia, which demands property restitution or financial compensation, estimated at millions of euros.
