Magyar Egyház, 1971 (50. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1971-02-01 / 2. szám
14 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ Robert Morris: ANOTHER CHANCE We have been writing in this column for more than a decade of the virtually total deprivation of civil rights being experienced by more than a billion of our brothers who live in Soviet bondage. We have had such institutions as Captive Nktions Weeks and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — all to no avail. The free world barely yawns. But in the past few weeks we have had an opening presented which we should seize upon to pry open the cruel and inexorable iron curtain. A group of Soviet Jews were denied the right to emigrate to Israel and when they tried, they were apprehended, tried in Leningrad and sentenced — two to death. Thereupon a hue and cry was raised in quarters that haven’t bestirred themselves in decades. There are a billion people who are completely denied the right to emigrate. The Berlin Wall is a concrete testament to this. Up until now I have perceived little concern expressed for any of these people. But this time the news got out and it is different. I have seen names on full page ads demanding freedom in this case who have not understood our efforts in the past to help not one or two individuals but whole peoples subjected to genocide, such as the Tibetans, the Chinese, the Hungarians and others. —Twin Circle Silent Protest In Moscow As the Soviet Union celebrated the 34th anniversary of its constitution, a group of about 30 Russian intellectuals staged a silent demonstration here Saturday night to test their right to demonstrate. As plain-clothesmen of the KGB — secret police — mingled with bystanders in Moscow’s Pushkin Square, the demonstrators stood for 15 minutes with their heads bared despite the freezing weather. After the policeman had taken photographs of the protestors and people who stopped to watch, a uniformed policeman told the group they were not allowed to congregate and ordered them to disperse. There were no arrests and the demonstrators slowly left the square. Russian onlookers who asked police what was happening were told: “They’re just members of a fanatic religious sect.” The Communist party newspaper Pravda declared Saturday that Soviet citizens celebrated the constitution anniversary “in an atmosphere of enthusiasm.” Polish Youth, Church Fight For Freedom The story emerging from Poland about the people’s continuing fight for freedom should be thrilling news for American youth. For it is the “now generation,” those under 30, along with the Church, that is bringing pressure on Poland’s Communist regime to relax its tight economic and political controls and aUow the people a better life. Ironically, the role of the young worker in this exciting freedom development is not being brought to light by Western correspondents in Poland, but instead it is being highlighted Christ Purging the Temple. (John 2:13-17.) GEORGE WASHINGTON SAID in his farewell address: “If the religious institutions in this country ever collapse, the whole system will collapse because that is what it is based upon”. “The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man Is himself a traveller; that the purpose of this world is not ‘to have and to hold’ but ‘to give and to serve.’ There can be no other meaning.” —Wilfred T. Grenfell indirectly by Communist writers in other East European nations. In their efforts to pin the blame for the bloody December riots on “hooliganism among the youth,” they have told the dramatic story of the Polish youths’ quest for a better life that Western correspondents in Warsaw should be heralding to the world. An illustrative example of his this freedom story is emerging from the Communist press is an article written by Ferenc Varnai of the Party’s newspaper Nepszabadsag in Budapest. In singling out the younger workers as the sparkplugs of the riots and protests, Varnai stated: “Our Polish friends realize, moreover, that they still have a great deal to do to stop hooliganism among the youth, particularly among young people living in seaports. “To be sure, the depredations that took place in Gdansk and Szczecin were due to young workers employed at the shipyard. When the dissatisfaction there led to street demonstrations, these workers took advantage of the opportunity to set fire to stores and party headquarters ...” Another article noted that many of the young workers that led the protests were active members of the Church and that they should be carefully watched by the government because of their growing influence on other young workers. These and other stories appearing in the Iron Curtain press are the newest signs that the young workers in Poland are developing into an explosive new freedom force.
