A military chaplain should work with military personnel and their families, but this is almost impossible now.
A soldier celebrates Easter together near the city of Izyum in the Kharkiv region, April 24
Currently, not all military chaplain positions have been filled, and there is still a shortage of them in the army.
This was reported by the head of the Department of Religious Affairs of the State Service for Ethnopolicy and Freedom of Conscience Vyacheslav Gorshkov, Ukrinform reports.
“And if you look at the law on military chaplaincy service, there is a lower limit for the number of chaplains, but there is no higher limit, this is the number of chaplains that is determined as of today, it is sufficient, and that even if all religious organizations provide a sufficient number of chaplains and they all take up their positions, this will be enough. Perhaps the military will say that they need more,” Gorshkov noted.
He specified that a military chaplain must deal with military personnel and their family members. However, this is almost impossible.
“As of today, I see a certain problem. Now it is the military that says: give us more chaplains, we have unfilled positions. And these chaplains are supposed to be right next to the military, that is, closer to the front lines. And it is difficult to imagine that the same person will simultaneously care for his brothers on the front lines, in the trenches, in the foxholes and their family members. “It is impossible to break away,” Gorshkov believes.
The representative of the State Ethnopolitics noted that there is currently a parallel volunteer movement of chaplains who pay more attention to the family members of the military.
Gorshkov recalled that the structure of chaplaincy is very developed abroad, which is not only military, but also medical, and that which helps the police, chaplaincy among prisoners, chaplaincy in various institutions.
In his opinion, Ukraine will move in this direction.