Priest Dr. Oliver Subotić, head of the Missionary Department of the Archbishopric of Belgrade-Karlovac, as part of a series of missionary lectures in the Bay of Kotor, held a lecture yesterday in the portico of the Church of St. Nicholas about the ancestors of Nikola Tesla and the importance of the parental home in the life of the great scientist, on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of his birth.

“What is very important, when this topic is in question, is that we do not only have a historical reflection, but also to see what it is that actually moves us as parents in some way, obliges us, reminds us... We can apply a lot of this in our lives, when this topic is in question, by emulating the family environment. First of all, to give our children the opportunity to realize their intellectual and all other potentials to the fullest.
Before I came here with my friend, lawyer and writer Peđo Savić, in the Old Town on the terrace across from us at a table there were two married couples. Next to them was a baby in a stroller, with a pacifier, so about two or three years old. While they were talking, the child had a tablet in his hands the whole time. His gaze was riveted to the screen of that tablet,” said Subotić, adding that this is an example related to one of the phenomena of today, ecranocracy, which, by the way, will be discussed tonight at a lecture in Tivat at the parish house at the church of St. Sava on the topic: "Facing the challenge of artificial intelligence: a view from an Orthodox perspective".

Father Oliver Subotić points out that we would not have Tesla or Pupin today if they had lived in such an environment.

"They would not have had the opportunity to stimulate their mental potential. They would not even have developed dynamic accommodation of the eye, to name just some basic things. The question is how these synapses would be formed in the brain, what would happen if children were exposed exclusively to the influence of screens, an unnatural environment, without family interactions. Nikola Tesla was the fourth child in his family, and the youngest was Marica, also an interesting person. They say that she was the one who made Nikola quit smoking cigarettes", said Dr. Subotić, indicating this as an example of the influence of family.

Dr. Subotic then pointed to today's pernicious "culture of death," which is reflected in abortions.

“Today, we have situations where married couples, when they have their fourth child, simply decide to have an abortion. We cannot know how many Teslas and Pupins have been killed to this day, since World War II, when that culture, so to speak, of death, was affirmed. Another thing, Tesla brought a value model from his family environment. Not only inspiration for scientific knowledge and improvement. From his father and mother, he learned what it means to adhere to justice. That truth and justice, as his cousin Simo Tesla says in his book, distant, family, always win. That they always triumph and that we should adhere to that. In that home, he learned how to be merciful to others, to give to others. In that home, he learned Christian values, which he later carried. Do we pass those values ​​on to our children? You know, it is not primary to teach a person to be great "not an inventor or a genius, but a human being," said Dr. Subotić.

He emphasizes that this should be emphasized.

“Emphasize precisely in the context of the uncontrolled development of science in our time. Today we have a situation where Nobel laureates are joining forces and sending joint appeals that nuclear weapons, at no cost, must not be connected to automatic decision-making that would be tied to a substrate based on artificial intelligence. We have come so far that we are actually on the verge of a catastrophe. And why? Precisely because that moral value system has not been transmitted properly. Nikola Tesla had it. He withdrew all those Christian virtues from his family, from his family home. He has a very interesting letter that he sends to his nephew Nikola Trbojević in 1928, from which I like the sentence where he says that today it is very difficult to find a man who would have all three, as he says, qualifications: knowledge, fairness and selflessness. So, not only knowledge. Gas chambers, nuclear bombs, these are not some illiterate "People made it, but top scientists," said Dr. Subotić, alluding to how scientific titles, without family values, are worthless, and can even be a danger to civilization.

Therefore, he emphasized, Tesla, Pupin and all our greats are very inspiring people for all generations.

Therefore, he emphasized, Tesla, Pupin and all our greats are very inspiring people for all generations.

“But, I would say first of all for parents, because they are not spontaneous phenomena, because behind them stands something that they have drawn from their parents' home. There is a strong foundation, very important that every parent should know. I always tell parents, “treat each of your children as if tomorrow they will be the future, not only Nikola Tesla, but maybe the future president, maybe the future patriarch, bishop, priest, professor, whatever. Some of these children will really be that. We must have a responsibility towards our children to apply the knowledge that has been given to us, to instill in them as much as possible. Five years ago, bearing in mind the importance of the family environment in shaping the character of the most ingenious Serbian inventor, we formed an endowment. This is the “Petar Mandić” foundation. It is dedicated to Tesla’s ancestors, to cherishing their memory. Among other things, the foundation’s tasks include parenting schools for young parents. We bring in experts in the fields of clinical psychology, pedagogy, and priests. If you are interested, we can bring one of these lecturers here too,” said Father Oliver Subotić, among other things.

The very interesting lecture also discussed the extraordinary influence of Nikola Tesla’s parents, his father Milutin, an Orthodox priest, and his mother Đuka (née Mandić), i.e. the influence of his immediate family environment on the great Serbian scientist, a brilliant inventor, who left humanity a debt of gratitude with his inventions, the qualities he inherited from his family’s Orthodox-Christian environment, the importance of his family’s influence on his interest in science, and the way in which that environment helped him in difficult life situations, and what modern parents can conclude from all this.

Answering questions from the audience, Father Oliver Subotić presented data from the research of Father Stevan Prostrano, according to which 36 priests are Nikola Tesla, from Mandić, who were alive at the beginning of World War II, all died in the NDH. “Gideon Greif found in his study that exactly 91 people from the Tesla family died in Jasenovac, counting the Teslas and Mandićs. That is what is known by name, and how much is not known, so unfortunately, that priestly lineage has become extinct. We do not have people today who would be relatives of Nikola Tesla, so to speak, direct, from those lines”, said Fr. Oliver.

The attendees were greeted by the archiepiscopal vicar of Kotor-Tivat, the parish priest of Kotor, archpriest – stavrophor Nemanja Krivokapić, who invited the priest Dr. Oliver Subotić, the head of the Missionary Department of the Archbishopric of Belgrade-Karlovac, to a lecture from a series of missionary lectures in the Bay of Kotor at the same place and at the same time, in the portico of the Church of St. Nicholas, tomorrow at 9:30 pm, on the topic of the importance of the parental role in the time of “ecranocracy”.

Predrag Nikolić

(Radio Kotor)