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The National Herald - December 16, 2024

Conclusions About the School

By Theodore Kalmoukos

The President of Hellenic College - Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology Demetrios Katos is giving the interview to TNH

Many interesting conclusions emerged from the interview of the new president of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Dr. Dimitris Katos, with The National Herald during the weekend of December 7-8, 2024.

Before proceeding, I would like to highlight that the interview was widely read both within and beyond the United States.

What was once again evident is that Hellenic College and Holy Cross face numerous and serious challenges – academic, financial, structural, directional, and mission-related – that require immediate attention. Admittedly, Katos made a commendable effort to answer as directly as possible, but it was also clear that he attempted to gloss over certain individuals and situations, painting decisions and actions in a more favorable light. Whether he succeeded or not is something that those with knowledge and opinions – of which there are many – can evaluate.

It was an excellent decision to grant this interview because the broader Church and Greek-American community, as well as the public at large, deserve to know the current state of the sole institution that prepares Greek Orthodox priests destined to serve in the communities of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

You may have noticed that I emphasize the term Greek, as it represents the core and essential purpose of the School: to educate and shape well-qualified priests, instilled with Greek and Orthodox ethos and values, to fulfill their multifaceted duties in the communities they serve.

The numbers speak volumes. Consider this specific exchange:

  • TNH: How many students of the School of Theology are enrolled in the Masters of Divinity program leading to the Holy Priesthood?
  • DK: 58 – and 55 of those are Greek Orthodox Archdiocese students.

This exchange is also revealing:

  • TNH: How many priests does the School produce annually?
  • DK: Last year we graduated 13 students from the Master of Divinity Program, that is a low number for us. This year we accepted, I think, almost 26, so hopefully going for award we have numbers that are close to 20.
  • TNH: Is it worth spending $16 million dollars for 13 students for the priesthood?
  • DK: We can do better, historically it is in the low 20s.

I understand that my insistence from the beginning of the interview on the exact number of students in the priesthood track program – the well-known Master of Divinity, specifically those destined to become priests of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese – may have seemed tiresome. However, I believe it was necessary to clarify for everyone that inflated figures, such as those based on full-time equivalent enrollments cited by Mr. Katos, hold little significance.

The number of remote-learning students who are not preparing for priesthood in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese is also irrelevant. This is because the purpose of the financial support provided by the Greek-American community is precisely to sustain the School for this specific mission. Furthermore, the €2 million euros grant from Greece some years ago was intended to promote and advance Hellenism and the Greek language, not to ‘bail out’ the School from the quagmire into which its previous administrations had plunged it. No one took responsibility for this mismanagement. Instead, some individuals continued to collect their high salaries for over a year until their contracts expired.

The fact that the School has lacked professors in Dogmatics and Patristics for years – specifically since the dismissal of certain faculty members – exceeds the bounds of what can be considered acceptable. This issue renders the School difficult to take seriously.

And speaking of the dismissal of faculty members, let us recall this particular exchange:

  • TNH: Who made the decision for those professors to be dismissed?
  • DK: I don’t know. The previous administration.
  • TNH: Could Cantonis make such a serious decision without the consent and approval of the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Archbishop Elpidophoros?
  • DK: To my understanding something like that would be a managerial decision. Again, you have to ask Mr. Cantonis. We have a wonderful relationship. I think he did a lot of service to the School. He came at a very-very difficult time. I am very grateful for the work that he did. I can’t speak to any single action and decision. I have to pick up from where I am and move forward.
  • TNH: Would you ever have done something like this, even if Elpidophoros ordered you to do it?
  • DK: I can’t comment on anything like that. His Eminence has been a great supporter of the School and I wouldn’t want to speculate in any way what kind of a dynamic may have been.
  • TNH: You mean to tell us that Cantonis made that serious decision by himself?
  • DK: I am sure he spoke with people. Who else can comment except for Mr. Cantonis?
  • TNH: And now the School is left without a professor of Patristics and a professor of Dogmatics.
  • DK: Professor of Patristics Fr. Maximos Constas voluntarily left, from what I understand, a year ago.
  • TNH: For many years the School is without a professor of Dogmatics.
  • DK: Right.
  • TNH: And we say that we are a serious School of Theology?

I think that even with these few reminders from the interview, the conclusion can be drawn without much deliberation that the approach of “laugh with me so I laugh with you,” which Elpidophoros also applies to this very serious matter of the School, after more than five years in the Archbishopric Throne, makes him primarily responsible for its current deplorable state. What a shame.



[ The National Herald
  www.thenationalherald.com/conclusions-about-the-school/
  December 15, 2024 ]