The Study of the Old and New Testament will be made all during your
preparation. The Teaching of all this whitch precedes completion will
be required for each seminarian destined for the Priesthood.
In requiring this general education, we only have one objective, forewarn
the members of our clergy of all historical and doctrinal questions that
the external world could ask them.
Indeed, we know very well that since the time of Our Lord and in the first
centuries of the church the Deacons and the Priests were elected on account
of their zeal, of their faith and their immense charity, and not by virtue
of a diploma. The Popes themselves chose the cardinals from among the
Deacons and Priests, as well as from the Bishops.
That which was just mentioned does not mean that our Church spurns all
scholarship. It is proud when certain of its sons produces profound studies
on such or such ancient subject. It is there, the work of Hermeticism, in
which our Gnostic Masters excel outside of their priesthood.
These eight course have only as their goal to give a rudimentary knowledge
to our Deacons and Priests, so that they will never be ignorant of the
problems that could be posed to them.
In effect, one must not confuse scholarship and religious knowledge. The
first is the lot of doctors, historians, theologians, etc. That does not
make it the primary objective of our Church. The second is a basic education
for our clergy. We are not upset if on a point of history that our
seminarians are ignorant of the fact that in 1294 Pope Boniface VIII named
four cardinals belonging to his own family (three nephews and an uncle) or
that after 1049 in the pontificate of Leo IX the cardinals used the miter in
their coat of arms. If they know it, so much the better, and we would
rejoice in that, but we prefer that they spend their energy in spreading the
charity of Christ in giving an example of their faith and of their
self-sacrifice.
Our course of theology has as its sole goal to furnish the answers to
questions which could come from the outside world, touching our validity,
our sacraments, our ritual, our liturgy, etc.
Our study does not thoroughly examine the decisions of the Councils which
took place the first day of the 11th century (1054 which saw the Church of
Christ torn in two factions: the West "Rome" and the East "Antioch,
Jerusalem Constantinople".) That would be fastidious and useless.
That one knows only that in the first century there was one Council of
Jerusalem, that there were eight in the second century, 18 in the third, 91
in the fourth, 94 in the fifth, 84 in the sixth, 115 in the ninth, 43 in the
tenth, 134 in the 11th, that is 676 Councils since the beginning of the
Christian era in 1100...Because 123 Councils in the 12th century, 53 in the
14th century, 8 in the 16th century until the Council of Trent does not
interest us, since it is all about Rome.
On the contrary, we underline the decisive treatises that came out of the
first Councils, from the time when there was only one Church of Christ.
