HIS-Press-Service, 1977 (2. évfolyam, 5-8. szám)
1977-04-01 / 5. szám
HIS Press Service, April 1977 Page 2 As a result of this revision.,, the ad limina visit for the Hungarian bishops was changed from the third and eighth year to the second and seventh year of each decade. Another change introduced through the 1975 modification is that, instead of visiting Rome individually, all the bishops of a given country who are required to make an ad limina visit can do this in Rome as a group. Visits of the Hungarian Bishops to Rome Since World War II The first post-World-War-II ad limina visit of the Hungarian bishops, which fell due in 1948, was fulfilled by Archbishop Czapik and Bishops Hamvas and Bánáss who visited the Holy Father in Rome. Archbishop Czapik traveled again to Rome in 1950. As it turned out, this was the last chance the Hungarian bishops were given to leave the country. In 1953, Archbishop Czapik asked the Pope to dispense the Hungarian bishops from their ad limina visit*. When five years later the Pope personally wrote to the Hungarian bishops reminding them of their obligatory visit, the Hungarian government refused them permission to travel to Rome. For twelve consecutive years no Hungarian bishop made a visit to the Pope. It was first in 1962 for the opening of the Second Vatican Council that the Hungarian bishops were again able to go to Rome. Three Hungarian prelates took part in the first session and five in the second. Archbishop Hamvas and Eger's Apostolic Administrator, Dr. Pál Brezanoczy, were also present at the coronation of Pope Paul VI in 1963. No mention was made in the newspapers of the ad limina visit of the Hungarian bishops which was due in 1963. One can assume, however, that the Hungarian bishops who were attending the Second Vatican Council at the time also used this occasion to fulfill their ad limina obligation. It was in 1964 that the first partial agreement between the Vatican and the Hungarian government was finally reached. As a result,eleven Hungarian prelates were able to take part in the third session of the Council and nine in the fourth. Because of the government's refusal for permission to leave the country, however, some of the Hungarian bishops were unable to attend even a single session of the Council. The period after the Council saw a revival in the relations between Rome and the Hungarian bishops. Some of them were chosen as members of Roman congregations and Vatican committees and regularly took part in the meetings of these bodies. In 1968, the Hungarian bishops were nevertheless again dispensed from fulfilling their ad limina obligation. Foreign newspapers generally assumed that the Hungarian government had refused them permission to travel to Rome, but the Hungarian Bishops Conference denied that this was the case.
