OCU complains about the lack of chaplains on the frontline

A military chaplain. Photo: Raskolam.net

Fedir Bubniuk, the head of the Poltava Eparchy of the OCU, stated that there is a shortage of chaplains at the front line, and those who are there are forced to move from unit to unit, as reported by the Poltava 365 website.

Bubniuk mentioned that the OCU is preparing chaplains from among the military personnel who are believers and feel a calling.

A representative of the OCU believes that the shortage of chaplains is related to the fact that priests are not allowed to bear arms.

"According to the canons, priests are forbidden to bear arms and participate in armed conflicts, so there is a collision here. I think there are priests who take this responsibility very seriously. At the moment, we do not have enough priests in the region. We mobilize priests only as chaplains. But we have priests who serve as military personnel," he noted.

As previously reported by the UOJ, according to the head of the "Synodal Administration of Military Chaplaincy of the OCU" Ioan Yaremenko, only 80 chaplains from his structure are in the army, although 494 mandates have been allocated for the OCU. According to him, clergy of the OCU refuse to serve as chaplains because they are allegedly "demotivated" by the "crisis in relations" with the leadership of the Military Chaplaincy Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which allegedly treats the OCU without due respect.

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