HIS-Press-Service, 1978 (3. évfolyam, 9-12. szám)
1978-11-01 / 12. szám
HIS Press Service No.12. November 1978 Page 4 events, and justifiably accused both the Church press, and the Church leaders who had negotiated with the State agencies, of not informing them of the conditions connected with the course registration before their names and addresses had been taken down. An invitation to register for the course, under the conditions mentioned above, appeared in March 1978 in the weekly Catholic newspaper "Uj Ember." The qualifying examination for the course took place in June. As a text for the examination material, the religion book for the upper grades of secondary schools, "Our Faith and Our Lives," was used. 145 participants who passed the exam were allowed to begin their course studies in the fall of this year. The remainder - approx.100 - of those who successfully took the test are registered for future acceptance and will be able to begin the extension course in the coming scholastic year. The reason given by Church officials for the limitation on the number of persons allowed to take the course at one time is that the professors responsible for it have undertaken this activity on their own time in addition to their normal scholastic loads, and it is important that it does not overburden them. Most of the 145 persons presently taking the course come from well-functioning parishes in Budapest and the surrounding vicinity, and represent a cross-section of Hungary's Catholic population. There are course participants from almost all age categories and from the most diverse occupations and social levels. There are persons with# and without, college education; scholars; nurses; persons of other professions, and also members of simpler occupational groups; married and single persons; persons already retired; and women who were once members of religious orders. 60% of the registrations come from women, mainly because the theological colleges at present still do not accept women as students. Goals At the Theological Academy's recommendation, one of its professors, Dr. Tamás Nyíri, was entrusted by the Hungarian Bishops Conference with the management and administration of the extension course. In an article published in "Új Ember," Dr.Nyíri presented detailed information on the course program. "Our aim is to offer the faithful, within a fixed framework, an opportunity to obtain a thorough and systematic schooling in theology." This is especially significant in view of the interest in dialogue which is gradually developing both within, and outside of, today's Church. What makes such a theological background among the laity especially necessary in the Hungarian situation, Nyíri believes, is the fact that, for the future development of the Church in Hungary, the old approach of the past wherein the clergy and bishops decided what was to take place and the faithful were simply there to take orders is totally outdated and thus no longer thinkable. Since the Second Vatican Council, Nyíri stresses, "the laity not only have the right, but also the duty, to make themselves heard in questions concerning the life and de-
