DON BRANKO, Montenegrin with Croatian roots, was born on April 8, 1952 in Kotor. After attending elementary and secondary school in his native town, he first enters the College of Medicine University of Belgrade for four semesters, before turning his interest to spiritual subjects. He then successively studies theology at the Catholic College of Theology in Zagreb, Croatia, at the Faculty of Theology University of Vienna, Austria and finally at the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome, Italy. He is ordained a Jesuit priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kotor on July 15, 1979, on the island of Gospa od Škrpjela (from the Italian Madonna dello Scarpello/Our Lady of the Rocks). From 1982 until his death, Don Branko will serve as parish priest of the Sv. Eustahije Church in Dobrota, and subsequently as secretary of the Diocese responsible for the historical archives.

In 1991, the Croatian Conference of Bishops in Zagreb assigns Don Branko the task to open and lead a care center for Yugoslav refugees in Padova (Padua), Italy. Returning to his parish in 1996, he establishes three years later the Kotor Diocese branch of Caritas Internationalis at the time when, in 1999, thousands of refugees begin to come from Kosovo to Montenegro. By his numerous international contacts, Don Branko succeeds to find extensive donations to maintain a large refugee camp. After the situation in Kosovo changed and Muslim Albanians returned back to their homeland, Caritas-Kotor under Don Branko will be involved in supplying help to Orthodox Serbs and Romas coming as refugees to Montenegro.

Charismatic person of free spirit and wide knowledge, Don Branko is the author of many articles in newspapers and magazines, militating as far back as the beginning of the 90’s in favor of a re-building of the dialogue between people of Yugoslavia in ruins. He is also the writer of several books, among them “Maria of the Rocks. Perast” (with Gracija Brajković; Zagreb 1988) and “Stara Književnost Boke” (with Ivo Banac and Slobodan Prosperov Novak; Zagreb 1993). His last book, presented ten days ago in Podgorica, «Kurosavin Nemir Svijeta” (Belgrade 2006, ISBN 8648100364) was to be presented today, April 27, in Zagreb.

Well-known for not being always in line with ruling politicians and the official Church, Don Branko supported various citizen’s rights groups fighting against corruption and environmental criminality in Montenegro. In February 2004, he publicly opposed Government construction of a World Bank-funded waste disposal site in Lovanja, near Kotor, claiming that the Government violated property rights of citizens and the Catholic Church, which had title to part of the land. One of his last fights was for the defence of Roma’s rights in Montenegro.

In his local associative life, Don Branko Sbutega was in particular Honorary President of KotorArt, an independent initiative in culture, initiated in 2001 under the artistic direction of Ratimir Martinović, of which aim is to organise seminars and concerts of renowned artists.

QUOTE OF DON BRANKO SBUTEGA ABOUT MONTENEGRO’S INDEPENDENCE:

NIN: What sort of future do you wish for Montenegro: union with Serbia or independence?
Don Branko Sbutega: I am fully in favour of the referendum on independence, and hope for a positive outcome. Anything else means absorption of Montenegro into Serbia. It means that we would have to condemn ourselves to historical, national, cultural and linguistic oblivion, to becoming like Serbia rather than evolving according to our own model. Why? For the good of what? Montenegro within Serbia would not have the treatment of the Basque country or Corsica, because Serbia is neither Spain nor France.
“I LOOK FORWARD TO MONTENEGRO’S INDEPENDENCE”, August 4, 2005,
in NIN, Belgrade, Serbia.

ADDRESS OF H.R.H. PRINCE NICOLAS PETROVIC NJEGOS IN MEMORY OF DON BRANKO SBUTEGA:

Le Monténégro vient de perdre une de ses montagnes !
Boka vient de perdre un de ses plus fringuant navire !
Et pour beaucoup d’hommes et de femmes qui l’ont connu... Un grand ami !
Je me suis toujours demandé, avec Don Branko, comment un corps humain pouvait contenir tant de choses ?
Tant de savoirs, tant de talents, tant d’énergie et le tout avec un cœur si grand.
N’est-ce pas cela justement qui l’a usé trop vite ? Qui nous l’a enlevé prématurément ?
Il vivait entre ciel et terre, trop humain pour être un ange, trop angélique pour être un homme.
Don Branko ! Tu étais l’Ambassadeur du ciel sur notre terre...
Maintenant que tu as été rappelé au ciel, sois là-haut l’Ambassadeur de ce petit Monténégro que tu aimais tant. Mais aussi intercède pour ceux qui t’ont aimé et que ta disparition ont rendu si triste.
Je pense à la si sympathique famille Sbutega, à ta fidèle Dara, à tes paroissiens et à ton église auxquels tu vas manquer cruellement.
Mais aussi à tous tes amis et à nous quatre, France, Nicolas, Altinaï et Boris qui garderont précieusement ton souvenir dans notre coeur.

Prince Nicolas Petrovitch Njegosh de Monténégro
in Le Courrier des Balkans, April 28, 2006.