The The Legal Institute of Health Care Chaplaincy in Ukraine

Oleksandr Bilash; Nataliia Rosul

doi:10.18290/kip2025.2

Published : 2025-07-03

Vol. 14 No. 1 (2025)

The The Legal Institute of Health Care Chaplaincy in Ukraine

Oleksandr Bilash

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1248-7798

Nataliia Rosul

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8030-2355

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/kip2025.2

Abstract

The article is devoted to the legal regulation analysis of professional chaplaincy integration into the healthcare institutions of Ukraine, the identification of the main steps to be taken in the cooperative relations between state authorities and religious organizations in order to guarantee the rights of patients and medical workers to freedom of religion, the evolution of the health care chaplaincy starting from the volunteer movement of the clergy to their further professionalization. Based on the analysis of the legislation and the key aspects of legal regulation of chaplaincy activities in medical institutions of Ukraine, the authors have reached the conclusion that the legal status of hospital chaplains in Ukraine until 2022 reflected the religious component only, defining a chaplain rather as a clergyman, a member and a representative of a religious organization who provides pastoral, spiritual care to patients, and not as a qualified employee of a healthcare institution. Only since 2022, in the conditions of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and due to the increasing public attention to the issue of regulating state-confessional relations in the field of healthcare, the status of a hospital chaplain was legally consolidated, no longer as a clergyman carrying out his activities on a voluntary basis, but as a professional in spiritual care in the sphere of healthcare. This justifies that the legal status of a chaplain in healthcare today is characterized by the presence of religious and medical elements, which affects the determination of the requirements for professional qualifications, the scope of chaplain’s authority, and the features of his pastoral activities as an employee in a healthcare institution. The article outlines the main problems of legal regulation and substantiates the main directions for improving legislation in the field of health care chaplaincy in Ukraine.

Keywords:

health care chaplaincy, hospital chaplain, the rights of patients and medical personnel to freedom of religion, state-confessional relations, pastoral care

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Bilash, O., & Rosul, N. (2025). The The Legal Institute of Health Care Chaplaincy in Ukraine. Kościół I Prawo, 14(1), 31–47. https://doi.org/10.18290/kip2025.2

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