Magyar Egyház, 1968 (47. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1968-11-01 / 11. szám
12 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR ÜSS CHURCH THE CZECH CRISIS In our October issue we printed the letter of Dr. Joseph Hromadka to the Soviet ambassador in Czechoslovakia and the statement of the officers of the World Council of Churches on the Czech situation. In the following the reader will find excerpts from a message signed by leading Czechoslovak Christians and addressed to all Christians in the country, comments on the Czech situation from Reformátusok Lapja and Evangélikus Élet, two Hungarian church weeklies, as well as some reactions on the World Council of Churches’ statement made by East European church leaders as reported by Ecumenical Press Service, Geneva. Those who understand Hungarian are also referred to the report and analysis of the Czech situation by Sándor Kiss in the Hungarian section of this issue, pages 3—6. MESSAGE OF CZECH CHRISTIANS ADVISES PATIENCE, “CONSOLIDATION” (Prague) - Support for the policies of President Svoboda and Alexander Dubcek and thanks for the moral force and unanimity of their fellow Christians are expressed in a message signed by 24 leading Czechoslovak Christians, both Protestants and Roman Catholics. The message is addressed to “All Christians in our Czech Socialist Republic”. It was drawn up at a meeting of representatives of Christian churches held here September 2. “We thank all our constitutional representatives, headed by President Svoboda, who decided - in the interest of the life and honor of the peoples of our Socialist State - to take the course of gradually consolidating the situation that arose through the invasion of our state by some members of the Warsaw Pact”, says the message. “We thank you, brothers and sisters, that during the trials of recent weeks you have shown so much moral force, caution, unanimity and self-sacrifice, and have taken care to avoid doing anything that might endanger a solution of this difficult situation”, church representatives continue. In the interest of “normalizing life”, Christians are urged to protect their neighbours from all forms of “moral temptation and political error”. They are advised to respond to events “not with anger and hatred but with patience, in order to overcome evil with good”. Among the 24 signers of the message are: Dr. J.N. Ondra, general secretary of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Czechoslovakia, and Dr. Frantisek Tomasek, Roman Catholic Bishop and Apostolic Representative in Prague, as well as leaders of all major Christian bodies. TWO HUNGARIAN CHURCH JOURNALS COMMENT ON CZECH SITUATION (Budapest) - In the present “confused and oppressive situation” Hungarian Christians have been thinking of the churches in Czechoslovakia with “the deepest affection”, according to an unsigned article appearing in Reformátusok Lapja, organ of the Reformed Church of Hungary. Referring to “times of similar difficulty” in Hungary, the writer says: “Both as Hungarian citizens and churchmen striving for peace, we can truly feel the significance of events in Czechoslovakia”. The Hungarian churches have watched “with great sympathy and sincere hope” Czech efforts “to eradicate the mistakes made when the new social order was introduced. We also know the temptations that those carrying out these aims have felt”, continues the article, mentioning people who “wanted to turn back the wheel of history to the old order”. “In the present international situation”, maintains the Reformed writer, “the maintenance of the Socialist order also means the maintenance of peace in Europe, and ultimately the strengthening of peace for the whole of mankind”. The “fall of the Socialist power in any country” would have sown “the seeds of a world war”. In a totally different vein, the weekly journal of the Lutheran Church in Hungary, Evangélikus Élet, is highly critical of Western politicians and journalists who dare to question the occupation of Czechoslovakia by five Warsaw Pact countries. “Those responsible for stirring up what happened in Czechoslovakia (and they have been at it for the last 20 years) are not in a position to raise questions”, says an unsigned article in the Lutheran journal. Speaking of the cold war waged against the CSSR by many Western countries, Evangélikus Élet asks: “Why did they magnify the mistakes made in the Socialist cuntries and never mention the tremendous achievements? What were the many ‘tourists’ and reporters doing in Czechoslovakia in recent months? Were they not the ones who provoked the current situation? These questions should be answered by those who now question the churches in the East”. EAST EUROPEAN CHURCHES REACT TO WCC’s CZECH STATEMENT (Geneva) - Varied reactions have been received from East European churches in response to the statement by the officers of the WCC calling for the removal of foreign troops from Czechoslovakia. Replying to a cable from General Secretary Eugene Carson Blake (August 22) requesting an assessment of the Czech situation, leaders of the churches in Poland and Russia advised the WCC officers to make no statement. The Patriarch of Bulgaria, His Holiness Cyril, indicated that his patriarchate would not intervene in political questions of this nature. The Reformed Church in Hungary replied that the question would be studied and a statement would follow. When, in the days following the entry of Warsaw Pact troops, enquiries were made as to the position of the WCC and requests for a statement came form within several member churches, the officers of the WCC did make a statement on August 28 in which they deplored the military intervention in Czechoslovakia, called for
