25.03.2011.
Government adopts the Decision on Introducing the Chaplain Service
The Serbian government adopted at yesterday's session the Decree on the performance of religious services in the Serbian Army.
Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said on Saturday that this year will be remembered for finally restoring religious service into the Serbian Army after more than seven decades. "This year will be remembered as the year of the completion of reforms and the full professionalization of the army, as well as the year when the first generation of soldiers and volunteers joined the army in which after 70 years or more we are about to introduce the chaplain service into our military," he said in Valjevo where he attended the swearing of oath of allegiance of the first-class young men and women who will voluntarily be serving in the army.
According to State Secretary Igor Jovicic, the Decree of the Government of Serbia is important for creating a normative framework in the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed forces, which includes necessary changes to relevant regulations such as the Rule of Service and others, which will be a prerequisite for the functioning of religious service in the Army of Serbia .WE expect to conclude with traditional religious communities and denominations registered in the Ministry of Religion, a number of relevant agreements. Chaplains will, as planned, have markings on the lapel as a sign of the chaplain services. For example, officers, members of the chaplain service and priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church, will bear cross with trefoil, those who are priests of Roman Catholic Church will have a Latin cross, while a crescent will be borne by military imams.
The plan is to assign one chaplain per 100-500 members of the defense system of one religious community. Two chaplains per 500 to 1,000 members, while for another thousand one additional chaplain will be assigned.Members of religious services, and chaplains will not carry weapons, and shall strictly keep the secrecy of confession. They would serve as advisor to the commander.
The Minister said and the then Minister of Religion Bogoljub Sijakovic, in January this year, introduced the members of the Inter-Religious Council of the Ministry of Religion and the high-ranking dignitaries of traditional churches and religious communities in Serbia with the draft on introducing religious services in the military. Religious notables supported the efforts of the Ministry of Defense to include the chaplains from the traditional churches and religious communities into the defense system, as was announced after the meeting.
It was announced that the chaplains will be assigned within the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, into the commands at the operational level, the Brigade and independent battalions, military academy and military health institutions and relevant subordinate groups.
The idea of introducing religious service in the Army dates from 2000 based on the experiences of foreign armies and the long-standing Serbian tradition, which included the presence of a priest in the barracks and had a special room for the meeting the religious needs of the members of the defense system.
Adoption of the Law on the Serbian Armed Forces in December 2007 created conditions that both the Serbian armed forces organized religious services, and that decision was supported mid last year by the Serbian Patriarch Irinej.
Chaplains in the Serbian Army have had a long tradition. Until 1918 in the army of the Kingdom of Serbia within the command headquarters, there was always present a military head-priest, and the chaplains were assigned to the headquarters of division command headquarters and the active regiments.
After the First World War in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Ministry of the military and navy, there was a body that is guided by ecclesiastical profession, and it was one of the first class chaplain for the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Muslim religion. Supreme chaplain (officer) for the Orthodox religion is administered under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarch. For the soldiers liturgies were held in chapels and churches in the military facilities, and where there were none, in the local churches.
