Presentation of the Document on Higher Institute of Religious Sciences.

(September 25, 2008) Card. Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, of seminaries and institutes of studies along with other officials of the Congregation made a presentation of the Document on Higher Institutes for Religious Science (HIRS), with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI. He was addressing the issue at the Press Conference held at the Vatican, on Thursday, 25th of September. An HIRS is an ecclesiastic academic institution with the study of theology and the study of Religious Sciences. The study of theology helps in the deepening of the truth with an eye to accompany an increase in faith of the people and the entire community. The study and teaching of Religious Studies offers the necessary elements to create a synthesis between faith and culture. The purpose of the HIRS lies in the formation of the faithful, both lay and religious, that they might enrich their Christian lives, that they might give reason to their faith, that they might strengthen their apostolic work and, in particular, that they might participate in evangelization. This course of studies has three primary goals. Its first aim is the promotion of the religious formation of the laity and of those in consecrated life in order that they might better participate in the task of evangelization of the secular world in which they live. Its second goal is to prepare candidates for the many diverse lay ministries and services to the Church. And its third goal is to prepare teachers of religion at all school levels below the university level. The HIRS offers a systematic treatment of Catholic doctrine, with a proper scientific method, as it draws from the Church’s authentic interpretation of Revelation offered in its living Magisterium. The responsibility for the promotion and the progress of the HIRS falls to the Bishops, Episcopal Conferences and the faculties of theologies. The Moderator of the HIRS is normally the bishop of the place in which the HIRS is situated and if within an ecclesiastical university, the Rector, who has the duty to guard Catholic doctrine be integrated and faithfully transmitted, to support each other and establish the teachers, distinguished by their suitability of their knowledge of their fields, by an upright life, the integration of doctrine, the commitment to their work.