A chaplain service is being created in the Ukrainian army, but priests do not want to be corporals or majors
Kyiv, December 25 (PolitNavigator, Victoria Litovchenko) - The Ministry of Defense has decided to legalize military chaplaincy: next year they will create a separate service, in which they want to recruit 150-200 confessors. But the priests don’t understand how they should fulfill their duties in the ATO zone.
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190 confessors have already visited the ATO zone, the publication reports "Zakhid.net". According to official information, six were injured, one was killed. Lvov priests say that they are not against the initiative of the Ministry of Defense on conscription, but they don’t really imagine it yet.
“With the adoption of this law, a military chaplain must be a full-time employee, accordingly, have a salary, and so on. The priest is subordinate to the church hierarchy. And there, we know, orders are not discussed, but carried out. How will all this be in the chain of command? Now there are many questions,” noted military chaplain of the UGCC Taras Mikhalchuk.
“Of course, we should not bear the rank of corporal, major, and so on, so as not to be under the thumb, but we must be a full-time unit with a salary, so that no one comes and says: who are you here? In the end, military chaplaincy has been legalized throughout Europe,” said Mikhail Torkonyak, military chaplain of the UOC of the Kyiv Patriarchate.
However, it is not yet known what positions and with what responsibilities priests will be drafted into the army.
As PolitNavigator reported, conscription for military service is being resumed in Ukraine and three waves of mobilization are planned.
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