Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and all Ukraine of the OCU welcomed the adoption of the law On Military Chaplaincy, which the Parliament voted for in late November.
According to Censor.net, he said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.
He said that the path to the adoption of the document lasted more than five years, there were more than 10 bills.
"They did not satisfy churches, religious organizations in Ukraine that have their own chaplains. But in the Ukrainian army, about 80% of chaplains are chaplains of the OCU. Therefore, we are grateful to the Verkhovna Rada that we finally managed to adopt the relevant bill," the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine said.
Metropolitan Epifaniy drew attention to the removal of the provision banning from the priests of religious organizations with the center in a recognized aggressor country working in the army.
"It was deleted. But there is a reference to the Basic Law, in which this is clearly spelled out. And there is a law on renaming the so-called "Ukrainian Orthodox Church" to the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It is currently not being implemented. But the time will come when it will be executed. The Order of the Ministry of Culture on renaming has been partially suspended," he said.
The first hierarch expressed confidence that the Constitutional Court, which is currently considering the compliance of this renaming with the Basic Law, will eventually recognize its constitutionality of such a requirement.
"On the other hand, our servicemen will not accept a Russian priest into their ranks now. There are a lot of examples, you can find in the public domain, on the internet, how they, since 2014, blessed leaders, blessed those who destroyed our military. There are a plethora of such cases. And so there is no room for Russian priests in the Ukrainian army during a war, a real war that is taking place," said the head of the OCU Epifaniy.