HIS-Press-Service, 1976 (1. évfolyam, 1. szám)
1976 / 1. szám
HIS Press Service, An Review of 1976 Page 8 know too what its priorities are. An understanding of the specific needs of the members and smaller communities within the Church must also be present. The characteristics of inner unity, such as solidarity, must be present in such a way that they come to the fore in times of difficulty. Unfortunately, it is in this very area of coming to grips with itself that Hungary's Church is making especially slow progress. Strengthening the Church's Infrastructure Reaching a decision on some issue was a simple matter for Hungary's Church in the past: the hierarchy used its exclusive authority and social influence to state what the Church thought and wanted. Through the political changes which took place in the aftermath of World War II, however, Church authority in public life was drastically reduced. In addition, the Second Vatican Council gave the laity a greater role in determining the posture and activities of the Church. In the past, it was the Church associations that drew the interest of active Church members. More recently, however, and especially since Vatican II, the more active members are interested in working directly for the good of the Church; they are interested in being intensely caught up in the life of the Church. This intention often leads to the formation of work groups or societies interested in Christian life. Even in the special circumstances within which it must work at present, Hungary's Church can point to certain successes in the efforts aimed at carrying out the Council's directives. Such successes are, for example, the initiative taken in compiling new religion books, an activity which led to the formation of the now higly active diocesan committees for religious instruction, and the foundi of the so-called friendship and community groups which are concerned with finding viable forms for religious and faith communities, a problem also given consideration recently by the Hungarian Bishops Conference. The events leading up to the interest of the Bishops Conference in these groups is symptomatic of the present relations between Church and State. As is obvious from earlier Church trials, the State is extremely distrustful of all meetings, organizations, and gatherings of the faithful which take place outside of the churches themselves. Perhaps it was in thinking back upon its own early activities that the State saw in such gatherings of the faithful the beginning of inimical forces organized along the lines of the forbidden cell-system. The State considered such organizations a danger to the government, despite the fact that the government's own consolidation of power can already be counted in decades, and continued to prosecute them even when it had become a proven fact that these religious groups were not concerned with political questions.
