History of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia in Katowice
The way leading to the foundation of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia began during the times of the Second Polish Republic because the programme of the Catholic Action Institute in the Diocese of Katowice aimed at extending its influences on society. An interesting proposition was the organisation of the “Social Weeks for Silesian Academics” in the Diocesan Retreat House in Kokoszyce in the years 1935-1937, as well as the Theological and Social Course in Katowice in 1937, which attracted sixty students and presaged well for the future. The same goal was assumed by the “Catholic Social Week”, organised in Katowice in 1937, which attracted university students and representatives of outreach groups from the diocesan Catholic Action. Lectures devoted to the dangers of communism and sects were organised in working-class towns in Upper Silesia, including Lipiny, Szopienice, Mysłowice, and Chorzów.
The idea of establishing a higher school in Katowice appeared in the interwar period. Unfortunately, a strong objection raised by academics from Cracow and Lviv blocked the foundation of a higher technical school. The idea reappeared right after the end of the Second World War. The plans to create the Faculty of Theology in Katowice appeared at the turn of June 1945, together with the idea to open a university in the Silesia-Dąbrowa Voivodeship. The Civil Committee for the Preparation of the University of Silesia in Katowice, with Fr. Stanisław Maśliński as its member delegated by the bishop of Katowice, prepared a list of arguments justifying the foundation of a university in Upper Silesia. The fact that the plans were treated seriously by the Curia in Katowice can be confirmed by appointing Fr. Józef Bańka PhD as the first academic minister in the Diocese of Katowice.
Unfortunately, the times after the war unfortunately were not good for this kind of initiative because in the views of the communist authorities of Poland, Upper Silesia was supposed to become a model working-class region, promoting the socialist attitudes of its inhabitants. The University of Silesia was created only on 8 June 1968 as a result of combining the Higher Pedagogical School in Katowice and a branch of the Jagiellonian University in the capital of Upper Silesia. The opening of the University of Silesia was a very important event in the region, which now received a possibility – much bigger than ever before – to educate the humanist and social elites in the industrial and technical environment of Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Coal Basin.
The involvement of the Church in that event was rather modest, but it bore fruit in the future. On 5 October 1968, Herbert Bednorz, Bishop of Katowice, decreed the establishment of the university church in the Crypt of the Cathedral of Christ the King. The Crypt became a place of integration for both academics and students. In July of the same year, the first volume of “Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne” (Silesian Historical and Theological Studies) was published. It was meant to be a periodical of the Diocese of Katowice, in which priests could present their research, and which would be devoted to the problems of the Church in the Diocese. Before that day, on 13 June 1966, during a meeting for the academics from the Silesian Higher Theological Seminary in the Diocesan Retreat House in Kokoszyce, Fr. Gustaw Klapuch said: “Finally, the myth that Silesia does not need education is over. We hope that one third of our priests will obtain a recognized specialisation. PhD dissertations and habilitations require printed works that are purely academic. (…). It is necessary to motivate priests to do science because they are too practical in their thinking. (…). Contacts with lay science mean, above all, contacts with the intelligentsia, which should become very lively”. Bishop Walenty Wójcik from Sandomierz, who reviewed the journal, wrote: “(…). The Introduction reveals Bishop [Herbert Bednorz]’s prayer for the professors of the Silesian Higher Theological Seminary, so that they are not limited to providing students with the results of others’ research, but participate in the creation of a new theological knowledge, present the research methods to students, and encourage them with words and their own example to develop their pastoral work. Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne is a realisation of the Archbishop’s dreams and fruit of the work of young priests and academics”. In 1980, Bishop Herbert Bednorz moved the students of the Silesian Higher Theological Seminary from Kraków to Katowice.
The idea of establishing the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia was discussed by the University Senate at the end of May 1989. It was opposed mainly by students who pointed to more important needs. The passive attitude of the Church authorities resulted in the postponing of the thought. The Senate of the University of Silesia resumed the idea to create the Faculty of Theology on 29 April 1997, after a consultation between University Rector, Professor Tadeusz Sławek, and Archbishop of Katowice, Damian Zimoń. On 7 April 1998, the Senate unanimously accepted the beginning of the process. Professor Jacek Jania, Vice-Rector for Research and Cooperation, a renowned geomorphologist, a specialist in remote sensing, and an international authority in the area of the study of glaciers, was appointed as the University Plenipotentiary for the Creation of the Faculty of Theology. The Church was represented by Fr. Assoc. Prof. Wincenty Myszor, a recognised Coptologist and a specialist in gnostic texts, who at the time worked as an academic at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.
After numerous meetings, on 27 March 1999, Archbishop Damian Zimoń and University Rector, Professor Tadeusz Sławek, signed the “Agreement Concerning the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia”, which assumed the organisation of theological studies for seminarians of the Silesian Higher Theological Seminary at the Faculty of Theology, and the possibility to access the Seminary Library for all students of the University of Silesia.
On 22 October 1998, during the 296th Assembly of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, the Archbishop of Katowice was granted permission to establish the Faculty of Theology. On 22 April 1999, he applied formally to the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome. The creation of the Faculty of Theology required opinions of the Church authorities from the neighbouring dioceses, and from the Faculties of Theology in Cracow and Opole. The positive opinions of Archbishop Franciszek Macharski and Bishop Alfons Nossol, as well as of the two neighbouring universities were presented during the 209th Assembly of the Polish Bishops’ Conference in the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa on 26 November 1999. The Bishops they voted over Archbishop Damian Zimoń’s second petition, giving their consent.
As a result of cooperation of the Senate Committee and the Church Committee, the document titled “Rules and Regulations of the Faculty of Theology” was prepared. The document included the Church regulations, especially John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution “Sapientia Christiana” concerning Church universities and faculties (1979), as well as state regulations from the “Act on Higher Education” and the “Statute of the University of Silesia in Katowice”. The Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome established the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia on 9 August 2000, moving the study of theology from the Silesian Higher Theological Seminary to the Faculty of Theology, and appointing the Archbishop of Katowice as the Great Chancellor of the Faculty. Originally, only two professors from the Diocese of Katowice, two professors from Germany, one professor of Protestant Theology from the University of Katowice, and one professor emeritus from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw agreed to teach at the new Faculty.
The “Resolution of the Senate of the University of Silesia” from 7 November 2000, which founded the Faculty of Theology, was accepted unanimously. The “Agreement between the Polish Bishops’ Conference and the Government of Poland” was signed on 6 December 2000 in the Apostolic Nunciature in Warsaw. At the beginning of 2001, the first Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Fr. Professor Wincenty Myszor, started assembling academics willing to work for the Faculty of Theology, while the library necessary for the Faculty to function as an institution of research and didactics was lent by the Archdiocese of Katowice. On the basis of the library from the Silesian Higher Theological Seminary, which was lent to the University of Silesia, the Theological Library was founded. In 2004, thanks to funds donated by the Archdiocese of Katowice, a modern edifice for the Faculty of Theology was built at 18 Jordan Street. On 12 October 2004, on the occasion of the ceremony of opening a new academic year, the building was consecrated by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.
Since 2001, at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia, fides and ratio have been meeting to search for wisdom. The academics have progress in their scientific careers, conducting statute research that can be seen in their monographs and articles, published at the Faculty: in book series “Studies and Materials of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Silesia in Katowice”, “Theological Library”, “The Church in the Third Millennium”, “Studia Antiquitatis Christianae – Series Nova”, “Sources for the History of the Catholic Church in Upper Silesia”, “Homiletic Aids of the Archdiocese of Katowice”, and in periodicals: “Silesian Historical and Theological Studies”, “Pastoral Studies”, “Theology of the Young”, and “Ecumeny and Law”. They also publish in other journals in Poland and abroad. Apart from that, they organise and participate in symposia, conferences, sessions, seminars, theological evenings, and book presentations. The research of the academics of the Faculty of Theology is significant and recognised in both Polish and global theology. They were involved in the works of the Committees and Groups of the Second Synod of the Archdiocese of Katowice (2012-2016) and in the works of Historical Committees, examining the lives of Servants of God: Fr. Jan Macha and Sr. Maria Dulcissima Hoffmann SMI.
At present, the Faculty of Theology has the right to supervise PhD dissertations and habilitations. The students of the Faculty include lay people and seminarians, enrolled in the programmes of Theology and Family Studies. In today’s reality, according to Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the Faculty fulfils the role of “a strong and healthy centre of theological thought in Upper Silesia, focusing on quality rather than on quantity. And this is what the awareness of their mission in the Church and the contemporary world requires from the Faculty community”. The significance of the Faculty can be proved by the honoris cause doctorates given to the Great Chancellor, Archbishop Damian Zimoń, PhD (2007) on the proposal of the Faculty of Philology, to Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski (2010), to composer Wojciech Kilar (2012), and to Archbishop Szczepan Wesoły (2015) on the proposal of the Faculty of Theology, and to Fr. Professor Michał Heller (2015) on the proposal of three faculties: the Faculty of Maths, Physics, and Chemistry, the Faculty of Social Sciences, and the Faculty of Theology (which happened for the first time in the history of the university). The Faculty academics have educated a number of recognised ministers, moderators of religious societies, groups, and special ministries, as well as researchers that now are holding various university chairs.
Sources: Archives of the Archdiocese of Katowice, Material Files: “Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne”, Vol. 1: 1968-1994, W. Wójcik, “Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne”, I, Katowice 1968, pp. 184, 2 not numbered, 4 figures, Księgarnia św. Jacka (typescript), card 23, sign. 47/2320; Akcja Katolicka na Śląsku. Powstanie, rozwój, działalność, [ed. B. Kominek], Katowice 1938, pp. 33-34; Dekret powołania Komisji do spraw przygotowania powołania Wydziału Teologicznego na Uniwersytecie Śląskim, “Wiadomości Archidiecezjalne” (Katowice), Year 66: 1998, issue 11, p. 549; Uroczystość wmurowania kamienia węgielnego i aktu erekcyjnego gmachu Wydziału Teologicznego Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Ibidem, Year 71: 2003, issue 4, pp. 240-242; Z. Grocholewski, Wydział Teologiczny na uniwersytecie państwowym, Ibidem, Year 72: 2004, issue 10, pp. 411-426; Idem, Umacniać wiarę. Homilia w katedrze w Katowicach, Ibidem, issue 10, pp. 427-431; D. Zimoń, Słowo wygłoszone na poświęceniu nowego gmachu Wydziału Teologicznego Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, Ibidem, issue 10, pp. 431-433; H. Bednorz, Słowo wstępne, “Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne”, Vol. 2: 1969, pp. 5-7; J. Myszor, Jubileusz 40-lecia „Śląskich Studiów Historyczno-Teologicznych”, Ibidem, Vol. 42: 2009, issue 1, pp. 5-7; R. Sobański, Pierwsze lata „Śląskich Studiów Historyczno-Teologicznych”, Ibidem, Vol. 42: 2009, issue 1, p. 10; D. Bednarski, Geneza i historia czasopisma “Śląskie Studia Historyczno-Teologiczne”, Ibidem, Vol. 50: 2017, issue 2, pp. 235, 245; Wyższe Śląskie Seminarium Duchowne 1924-2004, ed. J. Kupny, Katowice 2004; Wydział Teologiczny Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, ed. L. Szewczyk, K. Kukowka, Katowice 2005; Komunikaty Konferencji Episkopatu Polski 1945-2000, ed. J. Żaryn, Poznań 2006, pp. 405, 410; H. Olszar, Wkład duchowieństwa (archi)diecezji katowickiej w rozwój teologii, [in:] Katowice jako ośrodek nauki i kultury w XX i XXI wieku, ed. A. Barciak, Katowice 2018, pp. 281-284; M. Kozłowski, Wincenty Myszor (22 V 1941-19 II 2017) – badacz antyku chrześcijańskiego, “Nowy Filomata”, Year 21: 2017, issue 1, pp. 141-143; R. Chromy, Elastyczni humaniści. 10 lat Wydziału Teologicznego Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, “Gość Niedzielny” (Katowice supplement), Year 87: 2010, issue 46 (28 Nov), p. 12; Wydział Teologiczny Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach, Internet – https://www.encyklo.pl – accessed 28.08.2019.
[ed. Fr. Henryk Olszar]