The army needs military chaplains. This is what father Ioan said in an interview for BTA, who before donning the cassock, served in the Tank Brigade in Sliven for eight years. The priest is currently the spiritual supervisor of the Sliven Diocese, and last year he won the "Mercy" award. of the municipality of Sliven.
Tsvetomir Petrov, as is his secular name, graduated from the "Georgi Izmirliev" Middle Sergeant General Military School. in Veliko Tarnovo. Then he was assigned to the Sliven tank brigade, and his service was from 1998 to the fall of 2006. “I thought that this was my calling, I was a mechanic driver of a tank, but as people say - the ways of God are unknown. In parallel with this, I studied "Theology" in absentia. and I decided to become a priest," he said.
„It is important for me, as a former employee of the Ministry of Defense, to share that there is a real need for military chaplains, Father John pointed out. Because the priest is not only a person who performs various services, but is a healer of the human soul. He would do much better than a specialist in healing the human soul who has a degree in psychology for example. Military personnel need a correct attitude towards their mental problems. Like any normal person, they also have their personal household problems, which also affect the work ones. There are also work problems that affect the family. I think that a priest can much more adequately enter into this problem and solve it, because our methods are not at a purely human level. Here we are already talking about divine things, about extraordinary perfection in the spiritual plane. We are not talking about sinlessness. "Psychology leads things only and only at the human level, that is, there things only go so far," Father John said.
Father John gave the example of the NATO armies, where there are military chaplains. "I have always seen and still see the place of the priest in the army. It is repeated over and over again that the reason there is no religious discrimination in Bulgaria is to prevent it from happening. I think we are very tolerant and other religious denominations abuse us. When we win some privilege, others try to point the finger at us and say - they have more rights than us and they want a hundred times more," he noted.
The priest also explained the role of temples in military formations. In the Training Center for Specialists in Sliven, where the father served, there is a chapel "St. Dimitar Solunski". Depending on the place where it was built, each temple has its own specific spiritual functions, Father John explained. “One is the parish church in the city, in the village, another is the church in a hospital, another is in a military unit. We can say that the specificity of the temple in a military unit is to really support the warrior spirit. We know that the church and military structures have always been hand in hand," he added. In his words, motivating them to show their masculinity in the difficult and extreme moments of their service is of great importance for the spirit of military personnel, especially in times of war.
The chapel in the military unit was built there more than ten years ago. It serves rather for personal prayer use, Father John also said.