Cases of discrimination abound in the Ukrainian Army against clerics of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church

April 12, 2017 – A new pattern has arisen within the Ukrainian Army, where the clerical positions are given to the clergy of the “Kiev Patriarchate” and the Greco-Catholic Churches rather than the majority Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP), despite protests from the soldiers themselves.

According to the Head of Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s collaboration unit with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Metropolitan Augustine Belotserkov and Boguslavsk. There is information about pressure being put on the military personnel responsible for hiring clerics and chaplains.

There are cases where a request to have a priest from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church hired leads to a negative reaction from the Military Chiefs of Staff.

We have proof that once certain military detachments choose one of our priests, their superiors try to have them change their mind and to hire a more “patriotically” minded denomination – notes Metropolitan Augustine – it would be nice to find out, among other things, how people measure levels of patriotism”.

The Metropolitan underlines that this is a constitutional breach of rights for military personnel who are believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

According to the Minister of Defense, S.T. Poltorak, the military personnel have a right to choose a chaplain for their units. He stated that that is the official position of the Ministry of Defense, and that the Armed Forces have the right to retain priests from the confessions to which they belong.

Against the wishes of military personnel, more than half of chaplain positions were given to the “Kiev Patriarchate”, one third to Greco-Catholics and one third to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Protestant denominations and in the last place, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), which is the majority religion in Ukraine.

Archimandrite Luka cites a clear example. “We have a document called ‘The Decision of appointing a religious organization, which offers a candidate for the military unit A1546’. Here, the officer unit is asking for the chaplain to be from the Kremenchuk diocese of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. But after a phone call with the Military Chief of Staff, we found out that the clergy member selected is from the “Kiev Patriarchate”. When we asked for an explanation as to why this is a case, none was given to us.

He further states that the choice of priests from the canonical Church is also the result of their good pastoral reputation.

We have cases when a soldier writes in his blank that he is a member of the “Kiev Patriarchate”, but when the time comes for electing a priest, he chooses a candidate for the canonical priest. Moreover, this is not surprising, because the Kiev Patriarchate has only recently appeared within military units. The so-called “Moscow Patriarchate” has a longer history of service within the military ranks, whose priests are often known to the soldiers”.

Currently, research is being done into how many military units wish to see priests from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church within their ranks. After this time, an investigation will be conducted with the Military Chiefs of Staff to find out why they discriminate against the canonical Church.

Thus, we are attempting to protect the rights of the many faithful and their freedom of religion and spiritual fulfillment”, clarified Archimandrite Luka.

The Synodical department of Military Affairs recalls that this is not the first such discriminatory example against the constitutional religious rights of Ukrainian nationals, as well as such a biased attitude towards the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. There have been previous attempts to close their churches on the territory of the military units. One notable example is the closing of the Church of the Martyr John the Warrior, located within the military unit of Cherkassy.

Pgoto document from the UOC press-service

03_UAarmi_discrimination

Sources

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/102654.html

http://news.church.ua/2017/04/11/vyyavleny-fakty-diskriminacii-pravoslavnyx-voennosluzhashhix/?lang=ru

http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2017/04/13/na_ukraine_vyyavleny_fakty_diskriminacii_pravoslavnyh_voennosluzhawih/