UOC-MP clergymen to be banned from becoming military chaplains - government decree
The government has adopted a new decree amending the current regulation on the procedure for issuing a mandate for carrying out military chaplaincy activities. The corresponding decision was made to implement the law of Ukraine adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in March 2024, according to the Permanent Representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk, ZN.UA reports.
The above-mentioned law stipulates that a clergyman cannot receive a military chaplain's mandate if the Church he belongs to has a control center in the aggressor country. In most cases, this provision applies to Orthodox churches, which formally belong to Ukrainian religious organizations but follow the instructions given by Moscow.
"The list of the grounds for issuing an order by the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience to refuse to issue a mandate has been supplemented with a new ground, in particular, the candidate's affiliation with a religious organization recognized as part of a religious organization whose governing center (management) is located in a state that committed acts of armed aggression against Ukraine and/or temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine," the statement reads.
According to the conclusion of the religious expertise of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is a structural unit of the Russian Orthodox Church.
