They can’t bear arms, however they’re a vital a part of the Armed Forces: these are Ukraine’s army chaplains. After volunteering for years within the East of Ukraine, they lastly have been granted official recognition. In March, Ukraine handed a legislation that legalizes the work of army chaplains and makes them officers. Which means that the chaplains are actually contracted by the state and are members of the military.
“This legislation is a solution to decommunize our establishments so the state serves folks’s wants,” mentioned Father Andriy Zelinskyy, “It is a very democratic custom based mostly on Ukraine’s structure.”
Zelinskyy is amongst those that labored on the legislation. He’s a army chaplain and the Deputy Head of the Navy Chaplaincy Division of the Patriarchal Curia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In his job, he oversees 40 full-time chaplains and greater than 100 volunteer monks who commonly journey to the entrance line. As well as, Zelinskyy is the top of the Supervisory board of “The Ukrainian Veterans’ Fund,” which helps troopers and their households.
“Earlier than this legislation, army chaplains had been volunteers, which meant that no person had any duty for his or her lives,” Zelinskyy mentioned, “So if chaplains had been wounded, military personnel was not required to assist them. These points wanted a authorized answer.”
Zelinskyy is talking from his personal expertise: he was ministering to the troopers since 2006. In 2014, when the warfare in Donbas began, he turned the primary army chaplain within the anti-terrorist operation zone. With the thirty sixth Separate Marine Brigade, Zelinskyy ministered in all the new spots together with Mariupol, Shyrokine, Pavlopil, and Donetsk. A few of these areas have been practically worn out by Russians of their 2022 invasion.
“Now, Ukrainian society understands what a army chaplain is,” he mentioned, “However again in 2014, only a few knew what it meant.”
MAKING CHAPLAINS OFFICIAL
As chaplains had been volunteers at the moment, they’d extra freedom in shifting out and in of army scorching spots. Nonetheless, it additionally meant that they had been unprotected and didn’t have any official standing or wage. Some chaplains had been employed as accountants or different positions simply so they may stick with one army unit and supply non secular providers to them.
“Ukrainian society is post-Soviet, so many determination makers had a tough time understanding how non secular establishments may very well be current within the military,” Zelinskyy mentioned, “That is humorous as a result of the church is a part of the civil society. The state serves folks’s wants, so if folks suppose that religion is vital to them, then the state has to create the circumstances to train that want.”
The skilled is referring to worldwide practices provided that in lots of democratic and secular states army chaplaincy has already existed for hundreds of years. The brand new Ukrainian legislation follows these traditions in addition to meets NATO requirements.
The legislation introduces a particular chaplaincy service inside the Ministry of Protection, which surveys army personnel to find out their non secular affiliation. The service then creates quite a lot of mandates which can be distributed between completely different non secular organizations based on the variety of troopers that belong to them. That is when the church buildings and different non secular establishments step in. They search volunteers inside their very own organizations and put together them spiritually. Later, these volunteers signal a contract with the Ministry of Protection and turn out to be members of the army chaplaincy. Lastly, the service management assigns chaplains to particular items.
This, based on Zelinskyy, profoundly modifications the way in which chaplains work.
“We expertise a metamorphosis as a result of we’re getting a brand new institute in our nation, a brand new career,” the skilled mentioned, “All of this requires time. Sadly, the implementation of the legislation is happening throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion. The warfare will not be the most effective context to provoke new institutes, however it may also be a chance to seek out new folks.” In his church, the precedence is to work with seminary college students so they’d contemplate changing into chaplains sooner or later.
“It is very important differentiate between our international idea of army chaplaincy from the Russian one,” Zelinskyy continued, “In Russia, chaplaincy started a lot sooner than in Ukraine, however there, it became an institute of political propaganda. It is a harmful follow as a result of the chaplain ought to solely serve the well-being of the troopers and their non secular and non secular wants.”
“We’re speaking a couple of private calling, and it’s a very lovely one. On the entrance line, there’s all the time a human being, and you’ll really feel like a defender of that humanity. You’re additionally a warrior, however you’re armed with love for these you serve.”
He warns not to think about chaplains as some social gathering influencers or pro-government manipulators. Relatively, chaplains are there to assist troopers heal spiritually and return from the warfare higher women and men.
“The principle job of the army chaplain is saving humanity of our warriors,” he added, “Victory for us is not only kicking out the aggressor from our land, but additionally making a society the place an individual feels one’s personal freedom and dignity, and the place a human being stays a human being.”
A CHAPLAIN’S WORK
“Worship is only a small a part of our duties,” the priest went on. It’s one out of the 4 work areas of the army chaplains, and the one one that’s supplied based mostly on the non secular affiliation of the troopers. For instance, Christian chaplains have to seek out and produce imams to carry out rituals for Muslim troopers as they can not carry out them. Different duties are common and apply to all of the army no matter their religion.
“A army chaplain has to give attention to moral and academic actions,” Zelinskyy defined, “As an illustration, after we observe the violence of the Russian troopers in Ukraine’s occupied territories, we perceive that their humanity is in peril. Ukrainian troopers are completely different. We now have values, and we strategy army duties in a civilized approach.”
Chaplains are additionally constructing bridges between the army and the civil society in addition to caring for the households of the veterans. And at last, chaplains seek the advice of the military management on subjects associated to faith and non secular well-being within the unit.
“Not everybody could be a army chaplain. It’s a troublesome service, and it requires mobility and a full-time dedication to the unit as a result of you need to develop with it,” Zelinskyy mentioned, “We’re speaking a couple of private calling, and it’s a very lovely one. On the entrance line, there’s all the time a human being, and you’ll really feel like a defender of that humanity. You’re additionally a warrior, however you’re armed with love for these you serve.”
“It’s essential to look at the wonder if you end up on the entrance line: to really feel the dawn after the shelling or to get pleasure from a cup of espresso when you’ll be able to,” he continued, “The ache, violence, and hatred make us defend ourselves, rejecting these emotions and paralyzing our humanity. I do know what it’s wish to be a chaplain in a unit the place there’s a fixed lack of human life. As a chaplain, you reside amongst troopers, after which, they’re gone, they usually take part of you with them. It’s a very painful expertise.”
Zelinskyy mentioned it’s essential to acknowledge this vulnerability. In his church, monks meet at an annual gathering for army chaplains the place additionally they speak with consultants in psychology. Chaplains attend pilgrimages collectively and search help from one another and the church management.
“We dwell in a society with a robust demand for faith, and excessive stress and warfare solely strengthen this,” the skilled added, “I’m shocked it took such a very long time to give you the institute of chaplaincy in Ukraine as a result of it is rather pure for our mentality. I imagine that the Ukrainian military will all the time have an area for the human, so it should all the time want somebody to guard that humanity.”
There are at the very least 100 army chaplains serving in Ukraine’s Armed Forces though the quantity is likely to be a lot increased as a result of it doesn’t embrace volunteers and those that joined not too long ago. At the least three chaplains have been killed on the entrance line on the time of this writing.
Anna Romandash is an award-winning journalist from Ukraine.
