Hungarian Church Press, 1958 (10. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
1958-01-15 / 1-2. szám
fíCHP 1.15,-11.1,1953, Vol.X/l-2- 2 -2 BISIIOP D. ÜL3SBT BERIilCacr OK THE SOCIAL SERVICE OP THE CHURCH- reply on the address of congratulation of István Dobi, President of the Presidential Council delivered on the occasion of~o5nferring decorations j upon ohurohmen on December the 30th 1957 - » Mister President, Honourable Presidential Council,- I express oui’ grateful thank3 for being decorated by the Presidential Council of our Peopled Republic, Our thanksgiving is preceptibly more in value considering the deoorations pertaining not, cnly to our persons, . e are fully aware of the fact - ar.d it does not depreciate but even more inalces our thanksgiving deeper - that it is not our persons but our church and her services that have been rewarded. We accept them in such a way repeating our gratitude,- I beg to be permitted, Mister President and Honourable Presidential Council to expound our view on the church and her service in nutshell. The people of the church and their service have two inseparable parts. Cue of them is the servioe of the divine answer given on the eternal claims of the human soul - shortly and in one word: preaching the gospel. This cannot be done by anybody else instead of the church, that is her special mission, which she has to abide by, in the changing age3, the fluctuation of the generations of centuries and millennia. The concrete and timely servioe of the church belongs to that essentially, according to the command of hie et nunc. The task to be done hie et nuno cannot be separated from the eternal and unchangeable task. Moreover it has its up rush cf that; /aid it results from the central command c? love containing all, A certain generation of tlie Church never lives somewhere above the clouds but on this very earth and she has got to fulfil her service arising from love just here. The representatives of the paver of the world, in our case the State of the Hungarian People's Republic, are interested in the latter servioe of the church and that is appreciated by them. We took this service upon ourselves and do it first of all, in love towards our Hungarian people. We love our motherland which having so much suffered and mourned in its history - in oui hope - will turn over a new leaf in the formation of the new order reshaping the world and what we call socialism. We love our socialist country well knowing that the people we love have the cradle and the grave, the sanctified past and the hopeful future in this place. The church could not fulfil this peculiar and everlasting task of hers not having her heart full of this love. We were led by this love when we announced with a fairness which never glanced back, that God had judged and overthrown the Hungarian past in the two world-wars and by His mercy opened a new gate, a new possibility for us to be able to build up our completely new form of life. He who did not break the ties with the past in his heart of hearts, in the soul, would not be able to build up the Hungarian future. We had seen and even now we contemplate the service of the church • especially on three areas in building up the new Hungarian form of life. One of them; waking up the spirit of community and promoting it. Socialism needs socialist people able to live together for each other’s sake and not only to live nexx to each other. Our church has a paramount and serious -service in this work forming the new man,
