HIS-Press-Service, 1981 (6. évfolyam, 19-21. szám)
1981-03-01 / 19. szám
HIS Press Service No.19, March 1981 Page 3 situation only after all other factors have also been taken into consideration. Even independently of the relative value of the index figures, however, the conditions existing in Hungary's Church provide a highly unfavorable picture of its situation. If we examine the Archdiocese of Vienna, for example, we notice that here too there is a great lack of seminarians and active priests. Nevertheless, in Vienna there is one pastorally active priest for every 1,443 faithful, and one seminarian for every 16,000 faithful. Number of Active Diocesan Priests in Hungary Diocese 1950 1960 1970 1979 Csanád 230 217 194 149 EGER 651 617 527 465 ESZTERGOM 370 358 349 356 Győr 282 349 271 268 Hajdúdorog 174 174 166 146 KALOCSA 146 148 126 102 Pécs 368 355 338 206 Székesfehérvár 205 220 203 193 Szombathely 226 239 208 192 Vác 478 484 440 351 Veszprém 453 561 502 362 Total 3,583 3,722 3,324 2,790 Beginning with the figures for 1960, the above table indicates both the secular priests of the dioceses, and the priests who formerly were numbers of religious orders and were accepted into the service of the dioceses. As is already known, all activities of religious orders were forbidden in Hungary beginning in September 1950. Only four orders were permitted to retain a religious community, and this only insofar, as two high schools are run by each order, these four orders are each allowed enough members to maintain the teaching staffs of their schools. Approximately 350 priests who had been members of religious orders were accepted into the pastoral service of the various dioceses in 1950. At that time, some of the remaining members of religious orders also found employment within the Church in lesser Church positions such as that of cantor, sacristan, chancery administration, collecting the voluntary Church tax, etc. The remaining order members were forced to earn a living through secular jobs. During the course of time, several of the persons in these last two groups have been accepted into diocesan service, expecially when deaths among the diocesan
