HIS-Press-Service, 1980 (5. évfolyam, 16-18. szám)
1980-11-01 / 18. szám
HIS Press Service No.18, November 1980 Page 6 versary of this saint. The Pope recalled the model life of Gellert, who was both a bishop and a martyr, and summed up the message of this important apostle of the faith to Hungary's Church of today as follows: "You are called to be witnesses to faith in Christ and to brotherly love - which is the mark of the Christian faith - among the ranks of your own people!" For the commemoration of the 1,000th anniversary of the feast of St. Gellert on 28 September, Secretary of State Casaroli visited Hungary with a Vatican delegation at the invitation of Cardinal László Lékai. It was on this occasion that the Secretary of State personally gave the Cardinal this third letter. Archbishop L.Poggi, the nuncio entrusted with the Church's "Ostpolitik," was among the delegation's members. In the closing words of a sermon given by Cardinal Casaroli during a Mass in Esztergom, he mentioned that he had first set foot in Hungary in May 1963 on an official mission for the Holy See. In 1964, while the Council was still taking place, the partial agreement between the Vatican and the Hungarian government was reached. In connection with the latter, Casaroli asked: "What function can and must the Church exercise in this country today and in the interests of the future of this country?" In any case, State agencies too had admitted that there are "an impressive number of faithful" in Hungary and that their presence cannot be overlooked. Although the constitution grants them freedom of religion and conscience, the social and political situation at present is anything other than friendly toward religion, and within such a framework the acknowledgement of the individual believer to faith in Christ is no longer a matter of course. Thirty Years of Hungarian Church Politics Were one to read the statement issued by Secretary of State Imre Miklós on 30 August 1980 (cf. Magyar Hírlap, 30/8/1980 and Magyar Kurir, 2/9/1980) or the recognition paid to the achievements and accomplishments of the past 30 years in the October 1980 issue of the monthly("Vigilia," one could assume that an unchanging course has been followed from the time of the agreement reached between the State and the Church in 1950, which was still the Stalin era, up to that of the recent visit to Hungary by th'e delegation from the Holy See. Strangely enough, this approach is also expressed even more resolutelyin a disconcerting statement entitled "Cooperation in the Country's Development," which was issued by the Hungarian Bishops Conference. This statement appeared on 17 August of this year in the Catholic weekly newspaper, "Uj Ember." It was the first statement to be issued by the newly-founded press office of the Hungarian Bishops Conference. The past 30 years, however, in no way exhibited the uniform approach suggested by r-------------------- ■-----------the statements referred to. There is no doubt, for example, that the partial agreement reached in 1964 constituted a turning point. This agreement was in itself a- ' sensation. After years of hardening positions, it signified a relaxation of the
