§ 65. The Present-Day State

According to the general principles now set forth, all the theological schools that exist today are, in general, organized. The difference among all these schools consists in this: that in some, subjects of general education are taught alongside the theological, while in others only theological subjects are taught, and those of general education are taught in secular schools.[1] The necessity, alongside theological formation, of also a general—indeed as complete as possible—secular education is recognized everywhere, and the more strongly so, the more strongly the consciousness has taken root in individual lands of the exalted task of the clergy in the world, and that the clergy must keep pace with the general culture of the age.[2] With a view to this latter point, alongside the regular theological education which qualifies candidates for parish service, higher theological education has also been organized, which prepares candidates for the higher offices in the church hierarchy and for teachers of theology.[3]

Just as attention has been given to learning, so attention has been given also to the upbringing of future servants of the Church, and for this reason there exist everywhere corresponding seminaries with established rules concerning the manner of life of the young candidates for the priesthood.[4] The strictness with which all the prescriptions concerning the full preparation of those who are to be ordained are carried out is guaranteed by positive laws.[5]

As before, so also today, the theological schools stand under the direct authority of the church power.[6] To that authority belongs the right to determine the scope of the theological subjects to be taught and the manner of teaching, to examine the teachers who are to teach, and likewise to keep direct oversight over the course of instruction, and, besides all this, before those concerned receive a permanent position of service in the Church, to subject them to a further examination. In those places where the preliminary sciences are taught in secular schools, the church authority has the right to verify whether instruction in those schools is conducted in the spirit of the Church, and, failing that, to remove from them young men who are preparing to enter a theological school. Just as the theological schools, so too the seminaries stand under the direct oversight of the church authority, and on that authority depends both the admission of pupils into the seminaries and the appointment of the directors in them, and the prescribing of the religious upbringing and manner of life of the pupils.[7]

II. ORDINATION INTO THE CLERGY

Footnotes

[1] In the Orthodox Church in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy only the theological sciences are taught in the theological schools, while the sciences of general education are studied in the classical gymnasiums, which candidates for the theological schools must complete fully. In the theological schools in Russia (statute of the ecclesiastical seminaries of 14 May 1867, § 127. 128), in Serbia (law on the theological seminary of 11 January 1896, art. 5), in Greece (Νόμος τξζ′ περὶ ἱερατικῶν σχολείων, 27 September 1856, art. 1) and in Halki (κανονισμὸς τῆς ἐν Χάλκῃ θεολογικῆς σχολῆς τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ μεγάλης Ἐκκλησίας of August 1867, § 45), the sciences of general education are likewise studied for a fixed number of years

[6] For Halki, see § 3 of the aforementioned kanonismos; for the theological schools in the Kingdom of Greece — § 2 of the law of 27 September 1856; for the same schools in Russia, specifically § 3 of the statute of 14 May 1876 for the seminaries, and § 2 of the statute of 20 April 1884 for the academies; for the seminary in Karlovci — §§ 104, 107 of section III of the rescript of 1868; for the seminary in Belgrade — art. 19, pt. 14 of the law on the ecclesiastical authorities of 27 April 1890, and art. 3 of the law on the seminary of 11 January 1896; for the seminary in Chernivtsi — § 25, II, 4 of the consistorial statute of 2 February 1869; for the seminary in Zadar — § 19 and § 25, II, 4, 7 of the consistorial statute of 24 August 1870; for the seminary in Sibiu — § 174, pt. 4 of the organic statute of 28 May 1869; for the seminary in Sarajevo — §§ 12 and 23 of section II of the consistorial statute of 26 February 1884, and § 9 of the school statute of 19 October 1882; for the seminaries in Romania — art. 19 of the law of 19 May 1893.

§ 65. The Present-Day State

§ 65. Данашње стање