Annual Report. PATRIARCHAL CURIA UGCC 2019

59 The UGCC Penitentiary chaplaincy office coordinates the ministry of 32 prison chaplains who work in 32 prisons serving around 13, 500 prisoners It is not easy to be a committed prison chaplain. There is a danger of professional burnout. Our Penitentiary chaplaincy office organized the first Networking Congress of prison chaplains which took place on May 28-31, 2019 in Lviv with the participation of 20 prison chaplains. The aim of the Congress was to present to the UGCC chaplains a strategy for the development of prison ministry in an interconfessional society. During the Congress, prison chaplains acquired a set of skills on pastoral counseling of prisoners and learned about working with prisoners who have combat experience (veterans with PTSD who com- mitted crimes) from trainers from the Netherlands. Prison chaplains learned about partnerships with institutions of punishment and probation in the framework of the social integration of convicts and shared their pastoral experi- ence in penitentiary pastoral care. The second Congress of prison chaplains was conducted on No- vember 26-27, 2019 in Lviv for 15 prison chaplains. The participants of the congress covered the important topics needed for their ministry: "Participation of Religious Organizations in Probation Programs", "The Pastoral Office of Prison Servants"; "The Problem of Sin as a Crime," "Compassion in the Context of the Church’s Social Doctrine." The organization of Congresses is a part of the formational program for a network of our eparchial/exarchal prison chaplains that is coor- dinated by our office of prison ministry of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC. It is also important to provide formation training for our prospective prision chaplains — i.e. seminarians. A training course on the peculiar- ities of pastoral care in penitentiary institutions and how to serve the imprisoned was conducted in 5 major UGCC seminaries for 69 seminar- ians in the last year of their studies. The course included theory part and practical study visits to the penitentiary institutions/per seminary. During the actual visits to the penitentiary institutions, the seminar- ians got acquainted with the importance of ensuring human rights in imprisonment, types of penitentiary institutions and their characteris- tics.