Patriarch Kirill urged to secure a deferment from mobilization for priests

- Taking this opportunity, I will answer the question of concern to many about whether the clergy are subject to mobilization in the event of such an announcement. Unfortunately, the legislation does not provide for a deferment from mobilization for representatives of the clergy today, the patriarch said, recalling that "the holy canons of the church strictly prohibit clergy from entering military service."

The task of the clergy is not to participate in hostilities with weapons in their hands. In the course of partial mobilization, it was possible to achieve a deferment from conscription for the clergy for the entire duration of their stay in holy orders. The patriarch called it important that "this decision be fixed." He gave the relevant instructions to the legal department of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Recall that in September, when a partial mobilization was carried out, the deputy head of the synodal department for relations between the church, society and the media, Vakhtang Kipshidze, indicated that priests can be in the NVO zone in Ukraine only as confessors.