Calvin Synod Herald, 1984 (84. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1984-08-01 / 4. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 6 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA The Roman Catholic Church achieved this posture only with Cardinal Lekai who is severely criticized for his “accomodation” with the State and accused of being dogmatic and “collaborationist.” The basic community movement builds on this sentiment on the one hand, and advocates conscientious objection to military service on the other hand. Thus it stands in confrontation with both church and state. Question 2. You mentioned briefly the fact that religious division in Romania corresponds with ethnic and linguistic divisions. What denominations do the members of the Hungarian minority belong to and what is the relative size of these denominations? Reverend Butosi: Since census and statistics compiled by Romania are inaccurate and manipulated, researchers have difficulties to estimate numbers. However, it is fair to say that of the 2.5—3 million Hungarians in Romania, slightly over one million belong to the Reformed-Calvinist Church, about one million to the Roman Catholic Church. The Unitarian Church has about 70,000 Hungarian adherents, the Lutheran Church about 30,000, and the Baptist, Neo-Protestant groups perhaps another 30,000. Question 3. An important point in your testimony is the fact that the minority churches are the last institutions that the minorities can call entirely their own and, therefore, they have important cultural functions to fulfill beyond ministering to the spiritual needs of the minority believers. What are these cultural functions and how much are the minority churches allowed to do in this area? Reverend Butosi: If under culture we mean the concepts, habits, skills, art, instruments, institutions, etc. of a given people; the training, refining, developing of the mind, emotions, manners, taste, etc. of the same; and the result of this complex endeavor — then the minority churches are trying to do all this! Take language, for example. While the use of the Hungarian language is forbidden or restricted in society, the churches have Hungarian services and intend to have until they live! In the churches the Hungarian minority nation finds its identity, the values of the past, the strength for the present, and the hope for the future. Of course, the Communist State tries to restrict and curtail the cultural functions of the churches, but they are so much intervowen with the spiritual functions as body and soul in our human life! Question 4. To what extent are the minority churches allowed to provide religious instruction for children and are they allowed to do it in the Hungarian mother tongue of the children? Reverend Butosi: Of course, we talk about Romania, and even in Romania not about the public schools where not only religion is forbidden but even the use of the Hungarian language! (The Amnesty International Report lists shocking facts along these lines!) The Communist ideology considers religion a private matter, and accordingly religious education is relegated to the home and the church. But in reality, even in the homes and churches religious education is greatly hindered. If the homes really produce Christian characters, woe to the parents! In the churches religious instruction must be conducted in the parish house, the instructor, however, cannot use blackboard, textbook, or even the Bible, neither are the children allowed to make notes. With the exception of a liturgical calendar, the church cannot publish books, magazines or other religious material. To my knowledge, the use of the mother tongue is also looked upon with disfavor in Hungarian Reformed religious education. Question 5. What are the possibilities for the churches in Hungary and Romania, respectively, to maintain active contact with their sister churches in the West without government interference and harassment? To what extent are they permitted to receive material aid from their sister churches? Reverend Butosi: There is a vast difference between Hungary and Romania in this respect. Hungary can and does maintain active contact with sister churches in the West without embarrassing governmental interference: mutual visits, scholarships, conferences, aid, magazine exchange, etc. are all possible and practiced. Not so in Romania. Only selected persons can receive religious books or magazines from abroad, and even they cannot receive them without censorship! Church delegates from abroad, visiting Romania, are not allowed to meet with colleagues freely; they cannot stay in their friends’ homes for the night; every citizen having conversation with a foreigner is obligated to make voluntary written report to the police on the subject discussed within 24 hours. However, the most inhuman restriction occurred in 1977 when an earthquake seriously damaged 80 Reformed churches and 16 parsonages, and only through the strong actions of Senator Abraham Ribicoff were we able to send aid to them. To send material aid to churches of the Hungarian minority is still difficult, if not impossible through official channels! Question 6. What is the situation of the seminaries in Hungary and the seminaries of the minority churches in Romania? What are the problems, if any, of the training of young priests to replace those who retire because of old age? Reverend Butosi: In regard to Romania I have dealt with this question in details in my written report; perhaps I can add here the miserable physical condition of the Cluj Protestant Theological Institute (is it left in disrepair because through the quota system they plan to discard the whole Institute); also the persistent reluctance to send theological students to Western seminaries ... We have to demand the abolishment of the quota system in Romania. — As far as Hungary is concerned, there is no restriction in admittance or recruitment. However, the exmission practice (commissioning theological students to congregations before they finish their seminary education) raises serious questions. Question 7. What can be learned from the existence of relatively less state interference in the churches of Hungary? Can the examination of the experience of organized churches in Hungary reveal particular steps that could be taken to encourage religious freedom in other Warsaw Pact states? Reverend Butosi: This is a difficult question. Because not even the Hungarian situation is evaluated as positively as the question may indicate. For example, there are persons and organizations which resent that S. CON. RES. 119 does not condemn Hungary in the same vein as other Warsaw Pact nations are condemned; they are convinced that the sophisticated form of state control in Hungary which has successfully compromised and coopted the leaderships of every major religious group, but continues to persecute the ever growing number of religious people who refuse to cooperate in the destruction of religious independence and the denial of freedom of thought, — is just as wicked as the other Warsaw Pact systems, even though it has succeeded in convincing a large portion of Western public opinion of its tolerance and liberalism in religious matters. I personally feel that those who see only negative factors on the Hungarian religious scene are just as theologically unseasoned as those who see everything in rosy colors. A church can be healthier under adverse conditions than in comfortable circumstances! All depends on faith and obedience . . . Add to this, that what “works” in Hungary, does not necessarily “work” in Poland or Romania ... Thus I can say only one thing: the church and state tension will not be solved satisfactorily until the kingdoms of this world will be the kingdom of our Lord. In this hope we should pray and work everywhere! THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED FEDERATION OF AMERICA will hold its 32nd Convention in Ligonier, Pa., beginning Monday, Sept 17, 1984 at 10 a.m. in the meeting rooms of the Bethlen Home and the Lord Ligonier Inn
