MILITARY CHAPLAINCY SERVICE OF UKRAINE: ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
BED,
Viktor, MP of Ukraine of the 1st convocation, Bishop of
Mukachevo and the Carpathians, Bishop of the Mukachevo-Carpathian Diocese of the of the Orthodox
Church of Ukraine, military chaplain, President of the Augustine Voloshin Carpathian
University and the International Academy of Theological Sciences, retired major of
the Armed Forces of Ukraine, participant of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Doctor of
Theology, Doctor of Law, Professor (Ukraine, Uzhhorod)
SUMMARY
In the conditions of Russian aggression against
Ukraine, the problem of creating a Military Chaplaincy Service in the Armed
Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has become urgent.
The military chaplaincy service is designed to organize measures to meet the
spiritual and religious needs of servicemen and employees of the Armed Forces
of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, other military formations formed in
accordance with the laws of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
and their family members.
Keywords: Armed Forces of
Ukraine, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, military chaplaincy.
СЛУЖБА ВІЙСЬКОВОГО КАПЕЛАНСТВА УКРАЇНИ: ДОСЯГНЕННЯ, ВИКЛИКИ ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ
БЕДЬ, Віктор, народний депутат України 1-го скликання, єпископ Мукачівський і Карпатський, керуючий Мукачівсько-Карпатською єпархією Православної Церкви України, військовий капелан, президент Карпатського університету імені Августина Волошина та Міжнародної академії богословських наук, майор у відставці Збройних Сил України, учасник російсько-української війни, доктор богословських наук, доктор юридичних наук, професор (Україна, м. Ужгород)
АНОТАЦІЯ
В умовах російської агресії проти України стала актуальною проблема створення Служби військового капеланства в Збройних силах України та Міністерстві внутрішніх справ України. Служба військового капеланства призначена для організації заходів щодо задоволення духовно-релігійних потреб військовослужбовців та працівників Збройних Сил України, Національної гвардії України, інших, утворених відповідно до законів України військових формувань, Державної прикордонної служби України і членів їхніх сімей.
Ключові слова: Збройні сили України, Міністерство внутрішніх справ України, військове капеланство.
The adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on November 30, 2021, of the Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service" [1], which entered into force on March 19, 2022, was an important historical event in the revival and implementation of the Military Chaplaincy Service in the military and paramilitary units of Ukraine.
In accordance with the transitional provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the Service of Military Chaplaincy" [2], amendments were made to the Law of Ukraine "On Social and Legal Protection of Military Personnel and Members ofTheir Families" [3], the Statute of the Internal Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (approved by the Law of Ukraine "On the Statute of the Internal Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine") [4] and the Law of Ukraine "On Military Duty and Military Service" [5] on the implementation and operation of the military chaplaincy service. At the same time, in accordance with paragraph 3 of the transitional provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service" [6], the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is obliged to ensure the adoption of regulations necessary for the implementation of this Law and the approval of regulations by ministries and other central executive bodies with this Law within six months from the date of publication of this Law.
Instead, as of today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and the National Guard of Ukraine of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine have not coordinated the previously adopted departmental regulations on the Military Chaplaincy Service with the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service" [7] (in particular, in terms of the Regulations on the Service of Military Clergy (Chaplaincy Service) in the Armed Forces of Ukraine of 14. 12.2016 [8], the Regulation on the Service of Military Clergy (Chaplaincy Service) in the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine of 10.10.2016 [9] and the Regulation on the Service of Military Clergy (Chaplaincy Service) in the National Guard of Ukraine of 24.03.2016 [10]).
On September 12, 2022, under No. 641/2022, the President of Ukraine signed a Decree "On Amendments to the Regulations on the Military Service of Citizens of Ukraine in the Armed Forces of Ukraine" [11], which regulated the issue of military service by military chaplains, taking into account the provisions of the newly adopted Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service" [12].
In
pursuance of the above legislative acts, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State
Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine and other
military formations formed in accordance with the laws of Ukraine have
gradually begun work on the deployment and staffing of the military chaplaincy
service: military chaplaincy management centers have been established, changes
are being made to staffing tables in terms of opening full-time officer
positions of military chaplains and military chaplaincy assistants, and
candidates for military chaplaincy positions are being selected.
According to the provisions of
Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service"
[13], the Military Chaplaincy Service is intended to organize measures to meet
the spiritual and religious needs of military personnel and employees of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, other military
formations formed in accordance with the laws of Ukraine, the State Border
Guard Service of Ukraine and members of their families.
The
military chaplaincy service is formed as a separate structure within the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, other military formations
formed in accordance with the laws of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service
of Ukraine, the type of which depends on the scope, nature and complexity of
measures to meet spiritual and religious needs in their military command and
control body, formation, military unit, military educational institution,
institution or organization (hereinafter - military unit). In a military unit
at the level of a separate battalion, the functions of the Military Chaplaincy
Service may be performed by one military chaplain.
The
relevant military chaplaincy services are directly subordinated to the
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Commander of the
National Guard of Ukraine, the heads of other military formations established
in accordance with the laws of Ukraine, and the Head of the State Border Guard
Service of Ukraine.
The
maximum number of the Military Chaplaincy Service for the Armed Forces of
Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, other formations established in
accordance with the laws of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service of
Ukraine may not be less than 0.15 percent of the maximum number of the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, other military formations
established in accordance with the laws of Ukraine and the State Border Guard
Service of Ukraine.
The introduction of the Military Chaplaincy Service and the urgency of its deployment in the military and paramilitary formations of Ukraine has become especially important in the context of the large-scale Russian-Ukrainian war of 2014-2023, when Ukrainian servicemen and their families need pastoral care, spiritual and moral support, spiritual and patriotic education, and moral and psychological motivation more than ever. At the same time, we should talk about the implementation of a highly qualified, responsible, disciplined, highly patriotic and highly spiritual military chaplaincy service with staffing by military chaplains on a full-time basis and with officers holding positions and the separation of the Military Chaplaincy Service into a separate and independent military unit. In fact, we are talking about the need to form a new kind of troops at the national level - the Spiritual Troops of Ukraine.
Along with the positive achievements in the process of implementing the above provisions and tasks defined by the legislation and the urgent needs to establish pastoral care in the military and paramilitary units of Ukraine, we have identified, in our opinion, a number of significant gaps and inconsistencies that can significantly weaken the quality of implementation, deployment and functioning of the Military Chaplaincy Service and slow down the process of its proper establishment in practice.
In our opinion, the following risks to the implementation of a full-fledged military chaplaincy service in Ukraine should be considered:
1. Lack of a
national strategy for the vision of the Military Chaplaincy Service as a
separate, independent, interagency, centralized and specialized new kind of the
Spiritual Forces of Ukraine with self-sufficient and independent functions of
management, pastoral, spiritual, educational, counterintelligence and combat
tasks, manning, structure, personnel work, education, training and replacement
of personnel, development strategy, financing, etc.
2. Management,
organizational and personnel division of the Military Chaplaincy Service today
between different military and paramilitary units: The Armed Forces of Ukraine
(consisting of various branches of the armed forces), the State Border Guard
Service of Ukraine and the National Guard of Ukraine of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs of Ukraine, which does not contribute to the full, integral
and comprehensive functioning of the Military Chaplaincy Service at the
national level.
3. Lack of
proper legislative support for the introduction of the Military Chaplaincy
Service in the paramilitary units of special services, the penitentiary system
and the police.
4. The lack
of proper legislative regulation of the issue of interaction between the
command of military and paramilitary units where the Military Chaplaincy
Service is implemented and the management centers of churches and religious
organizations, in particular in matters of personnel appointments and
replacement of military chaplains.
5. Lack of
legislative regulation and good practice regarding the consideration of
personnel and qualification requirements for the appointment of military
chaplains, in particular, taking into account the status of military and
paramilitary units according to their ranks in the military administration
system; available degrees of education, academic degrees and academic titles;
work experience; duration of pastoral service and stay in the clergy, taking
into account the available clergy rank (priest, archpriest, bishop); managerial
skills; available civil servant ranks and their correlation with military
ranks; available or absent military ranks, etc., not to mention the need to
take into account the moral, psychological, ideological and political
compliance of candidates for military chaplains when selecting and appointing
them.
6. Non-compliance
and ignoring by the command of military and paramilitary formations in Ukraine
of the provisions of subparagraph 11) of paragraph 1 of Article 1 and
paragraphs 2-3 of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Military
Chaplaincy Service" [14] in the formation of military chaplaincy service
management centers (regional, troops, branches of service, etc.) from among the
staff officers of the moral and psychological support service and other military
units, and not from among military chaplains of the clergy. As a result, the
functional and organizational content of the legislative concept and definition
of "Military Chaplaincy Service" is a separate structure within the
Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, other military
formations formed in accordance with the laws of Ukraine and the State Border
Guard Service of Ukraine, consisting of the governing bodies of the Military
Chaplaincy Service, military chaplains and established to organize measures to
meet the spiritual and religious needs of military personnel,employees
and their families in peacetime and wartime"[15].
In our opinion, the most problematic issues and
risks that have arisen today in the process of implementing the Military
Chaplaincy Service in Ukraine and require urgent regulation and resolution are
as follows:
1. The
management centers of churches and religious organizations, which are
practically excluded from effective recruitment and influence on the
appointment of military chaplains directly at the level of military and
paramilitary units due to inadequate coordination and interaction, should be
more effectively and with guaranteed rights allowed to engage in personnel work
on the selection, appointment, dismissal and transfer of military chaplains to
vacant positions, as they continue to be spiritually proper clergy of a
particular church structure.
2. For some
unknown reason, the command staff of the centers of regional management of
military and paramilitary units, military
units, troops, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Guard
Service of Ukraine and the National Guard of Ukraine of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs of Ukraine, is staffed
by career officers, usually former deputy police officers or representatives of
the moral and psychological support service, rather than by officers from the
mobilized or contingent military. For their part, career military officers who
are not clergymen and, accordingly, military chaplains, cannot effectively perform
the functions of managing the Military Chaplaincy Service, as they do not have
proper education in theology, do not know and do not understand the essence of
the pastoral activities of clergymen, and hence military chaplains; often many
of them are not believers at all, have no knowledge of the history of the
Church and do not understand the peculiarities of church building in Ukraine.
3. The
transfer of the management of the Military Chaplaincy Service in the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and the National
Guard of Ukraine of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine exclusively
into the hands of career офіцерів military personnel, including yesterday's
deputy policemen and representatives of the moral and psychological support
service and other military units, instead of forming the management of the
Military Chaplaincy Service from among the clergy - military chaplains
(priests, bishops), will not lead to a high-quality and full-fledged On the
contrary, it will lead to negative consequences and has already led to many
cases: actual inhibition of the development of the Military Chaplaincy Service,
dilution of its spiritual content, personnel decisions and the creation of
conflict situations.
This is,
in our opinion, an extremely negative practice today, which contradicts the
provisions of subparagraph 11) of paragraph 1 of Article 1 and paragraphs 2-3
of Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy
Service" [16] in terms of appointment and staffing of military chaplaincy
service management centers (military units, regional military formations,
troops, branches of the military, etc. ) from among the career officers of
former deputy policemen, today's moral and psychological support service and
other military units, and not from among the directly mobilized, contractors or
employees of military chaplains-priests, is a violation of the requirements of
the above provisions of the Law [17], negatively affects the processes of
implementation, deployment, proper formation and functioning and the formation
of the Military Chaplaincy Service. And this, in turn, does not and will not
allow the Military Chaplaincy Service to properly and fully fulfill the high
tasks assigned to it by the Law.
Accordingly,
the management centers (regional and higher) of the Military Chaplaincy Service
in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and
the National Guard of Ukraine of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine,
and later, subject to створенняй in the interagency Military Chaplaincy Service
of Ukraine, should be headed and formed by representatives of the clergy from
among those clergy who are ready to mobilize or enter into contracts for
military service as military chaplains (or temporary employees).
The introduced Military Chaplaincy Service should definitely be united
into a single, separate, centralized and independent management system, namely
a separate state interagency paramilitary Military Chaplaincy Service of
Ukraine (as an authorized special paramilitary central executive body), which
should be entrusted with the tasks provided for by the Law of Ukraine "On
Military Chaplaincy", envisaged by the Law of Ukraine "On the
Military Chaplaincy Service" [14], in particular, issues of management,
development strategy, recruitment, appointment, transfer, dismissal and
maintenance of the reserve, organization of training and advanced training,
methodology, pastoral activities and preaching the Word of Truth by military
chaplains, assignment of primary, regular and extraordinary military ranks,
financing, etc.
The respective Military Chaplaincy Service of Ukraine should be headed by
a military chaplain in the spiritual rank of bishop from among the clergy of
the Local Orthodox Church of Ukraine (as the historical and more numerous
denomination) with the appointment of deputies on a confessional basis from
among military chaplains, priests or bishops, representatives of other churches
and religious organizations whose charters are officially registered in Ukraine
and which have the right to delegate their clergy to the military chaplaincy
service. A similar principle of personnel appointments should be implemented in
the appointment of commanders (chiefs, commanders) of regional centers for the
management of lower-level military chaplaincy services with the appointment of
officers from among military chaplains-priests to the relevant positions.
4. The Military Chaplaincy Service of
Ukraine as an independent paramilitary Special Military Service should be
directly subordinated to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine with the appropriate gradation of subordination of the structural units
of the Military Chaplaincy Service of Ukraine to the Commander-in-Chief of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Commander of the National Guard of Ukraine, the
heads of other military formations established in accordance with the laws of
Ukraine, the Head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
5.
The appointment of military chaplains without the creation of a single
management, methodological and personnel center for military chaplaincy, at the
discretion of hundreds and hundreds of individual commanders and commanders
(who have different views, education, spiritual, cultural and moral level, understand
or do not understand the basics of faith, church structure and the
peculiarities of multidenominational church building in Ukraine, belong or do
not belong to a particular religious denomination, etc.
6. Given
the fact that military chaplains have not been trained in Ukraine before and an
adequate qualitative and quantitative reserve of candidates for military
chaplaincy positions has not been created, it would be advisable to introduce a
transition period of up to 5-10 years (as vacant military chaplaincy positions
are filled), During this period, part-time priests should also have the right
to be accepted for the service of military chaplains, with special conditions
and not necessarily with existing officer ranks, who should retain the right to
simultaneously serve as priests in parishes or bishops in the dioceses they
lead.
The need to separate and create an independent
interdepartmental Military Chaplaincy Service of Ukraine follows from the
content of Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine [15], Articles 1-6 of the
Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service" [16] and the
political, legal, religious, spiritual, organizational and structural nature of
the purpose of the Military Chaplaincy Service.
In the period before the creation of a separate
independent interagency Military Chaplaincy Service of Ukraine with a phased
decision on its creation, appointment of leadership and structuring, it is
advisable to immediately replace the already appointed leaders and other
officers from among the already appointed leaders and other officers from the
military, moral and psychological support services for military personnel from
among military chaplains (priests and bishops) who have expressed a desire to
mobilize or sign contracts for military chaplaincy.
It is clear that the above issues need to be
comprehensively studied, discussed and taken into account in order to find the
most optimal and correct solution to the problems of proper implementation of
the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy
Service"[17]. The issue
of the introduction and development of the Military Chaplaincy Service in
Ukraine cannot be postponed until tomorrow, it needs urgent consideration,
regulation and ordering.
REFERENCES:
1.
The Law of Ukraine "On the
Military Chaplaincy Service". – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1915-20#Text
2.
Ibid.
3.
Law of
Ukraine "On Social and Legal Protection of Servicemen and Members of Their
Families". – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2011-12#Text
4.
Statute
of the Internal Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (approved by the Law of
Ukraine "On the Statute of the Internal Service of the Armed Forces of
Ukraine"). – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/548-14#Text
5.
The Law
of Ukraine "On Military Duty and Military Service". – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2232-12#Text
6.
Law of Ukraine "On the
Military Chaplaincy Service". – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1915-20#Text
7.
Ibid.
8.
On Approval of the Regulation on the Service of Military
Clergy (Chaplaincy Service) in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Order of the Ministry
of Defense of Ukraine of 14.12.2026). – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0010-17#Text
9.
On Approval of the Regulation on the Service of Military
Clergy (Chaplaincy Service) in the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (Order
of the Ministry of InternalAffairs of Ukraine of 10.10.2016). – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z1430-16#Text
10. On Approval of the Regulation on the
Service of Military Clergy (Chaplaincy Service) in the National Guard of
Ukraine (Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine of 24.03.2016). – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0010-17#Text
11. Decree of the President of Ukraine "On Amendments to
the Regulation on Military Service of Citizens of Ukraine in the Armed Forces
of Ukraine" of 12.09.2022, no. 641/2022. – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/641/2022#Text
12. The Law of
Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service". – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1915-20#Text
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. The Constitution of Ukraine. – URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/254%D0%BA/96-%D0%B2%D1%80#Text
20. The Law of
Ukraine "On the Military Chaplaincy Service".– URL: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1915-20#Text
21. Ibid.
