The state should allow religious organizations to adequately express their religious feelings, but at the same time prevent the manipulation of religion and its use by the enemy as a weapon, said the newly appointed Head of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelenskyy, commenting to LB.ua on the priority tasks he believes should be accomplished by the Service.
"I do not know yet how this Service is organized. I know about its goals and objectives, but I need to find out who works there. I know people who are professionally engaged in religion, and ethnic policy, but not all of them. It is necessary to talk about what they see as the main tasks, the priority tasks in the sphere of freedom of conscience, in cooperation with other bodies dealing with the rights and freedoms of citizens. And not only citizens, because freedom of conscience in Ukraine is guaranteed to everyone," said Yelenskyy.
He reminded that the State Service implements the policy in the field of freedom of conscience and ethnic policy, and "if with the ethnic policy it is more or less clear what this policy is, there are very general definitions in the freedom of conscience area."
"In addition, Ukraine has undertaken obligations to religious organizations that it has not undertaken to any other. For example, Ukraine has no obligations to creative unions to deal with the legacy of the Soviet totalitarian regime. According to the law, Ukraine has such an obligation to religious organizations because religious organizations were subjected to the greatest destruction by the totalitarian regime that was in place.
Therefore, when dealing with religious organizations, the state of Ukraine has to give them the opportunity to adequately express their religious feelings, and provide all conditions for religious organizations to carry out their spiritual, social, charitable and other socially significant activities," said the head of the State Ethnic Policy.
Moreover, according to him, the war has added new challenges.
That is chaplaincy service. It is a unique service. We used to have none in Ukraine. I had the honour to write the draft of the first order of the Cabinet of Ministers in 2014 on the introduction of chaplaincy service. This is an important service because there are situations when no one can replace a military priest - neither a military psychologist nor a commander. For example, when a person deals with the so-called final values. And the State Service for Religious Affairs and Ethnic Policy received a mandate to work in this area, to promote the chaplaincy service, the service of military clergy. It is important nowadays," said Yelenskyy.
Also, the head of the State Ethnic Policy noted, one of the extremely important areas is protection against the manipulation of religion and its use as a tool by the enemy.
"The use of religion for subversive purposes is a separate story, monographs have been written about it. The enemy can use or try to use anyone, but we must protect against it," Yelenskyy said.
"And, of course, we have to find the golden mean in the policy on national minorities. This issue is very complex, it is an issue that is constantly in the centre of European ethnic policy. And this golden mean is that national communities should have all opportunities for their cultural and spiritual development, and at the same time members of these communities should be fully integrated into Ukrainian society. This is a very sensitive issue. It is sensitive both for national minorities and for those who belong to the Ukrainian ethnic group. We see that not all national minorities equally welcomed the law on education, and the law on language. It is important that the development of spirituality, cultural and linguistic identity does not damage the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian culture," he concluded.
The Cabinet of Ministers appointed Viktor Yelenskyy as the head of the State Agency for Regional Development instead of Olena Bohdan, who was dismissed "due to a number of issues concerning her work".