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Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote:True, it gives them insight onto other things, but if one of the duties of a priest is to serve their diety, and their required reading is of a different diety, how may they then help others serve that diety as well?
Gegania wrote:Salvete,
The Virgines Vestales would have to be given a new mandate and new traditions would have to be started.
P.S. T. Cato Worsfeld's "The His
tory of the Vestal Virgins of Rome" is a good resource on the Vestals.
M Moravius Horatius Piscinus wrote:On the one hand the priests serve the gods, but on the other they are dealing with people. I will tell you from personal experience that if you pose yourself as a priest you will become involved with having to counsel people. After all, in some cases you will be performing marriages or funerals. In some states you are required to meet certain requirements for a license, and you are required to give prenuptial counselling before consenting to perform a marriage. With a funeral you will be expected to provide comfort to the relatives of the deceased. There are also other legal issues involved, different from state. If you are operating a facility of worship, or even just as an individual providing religious services, you are operating a business and come under a variety of laws. Your priesthood should be able to instruct others; in some cases dealing with children, which can require professional training depending on what is involved. There is more involved in being a legally recognized and licensed member of the clergy than just a superficial knowledge of a religious tradition. I would be concerned with that since your clergy would represent the Religio Romana, not only to practitioners of the religio but to non-practitioners as well and to legal authorities.
M. Moravius Horatius Piscinus wrote:Legal issues vary from state to state. You would have to provide your trainees with some guidance on where to look or who to contact to see what their state requirements are. Usually the clerk of courts at the county level will have that information. I would prefer that some general training in theology, ethics, and counselling be made part of any instructional program. Then you would also have to provide instruction on the Religio Romana in general. Some of that would be technical. Then depending on the particular priesthood, the individual candidate would need to research in a specialization as you suggest.
M. Moravius Horatius Piscinus wrote:Exactly what priesthoods you would establish depends on the organization you envision, each priesthood being given specific duties to perform and perhaps lines of authority in their interrelationships.
Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote:Agreed. And my only addition is that a lot of this depends on how far we go with our pontifices, augures, sacerdotes, et al. If we keep them solely within the scope of the SVR, then I would think that we wouldn't be bound by such laws. But if we take this outside the scope of the SVR, then, yes, we will have to face these laws, and in that case, we must take these laws under consideration, and act accordingly (i.e., seeing to the professional training of our clergy, or simply be sure to allow only those who have such training into the clergy. Can we agree to that?
The other thing you bring up, a role for a priesthood in SVR, has never really been discussed. It has been brought up before but not fully discussed. That is my fault perhaps, because I am more interested in seeing legally recognized religious groups forming.and have tended to dampen the idea of establishing priesthoods for SVR. It may be just a matter of my thinking of priesthoods in different terms. So I would be interested to know what role you see for priesthoods in SVR.
Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote:
I guess what I'm really saying is that perhaps we should not have a required reading list, rather we should look at the listing of what each candidate has read, and compare the material therein to how such a candidate may assist others in the worship of their diety by using that material. I'm a Cicero, so I must ask: Does this make any sense?
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