Magyar Egyház, 1989 (63. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1989-03-01 / 2. szám
12. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ CARDINAL AND PRIME MINISTER EXCHANGE LETTERS (CZECHOSLOVAKIA) Two letters written by the Czech Primate Frantisek Tomasek to Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec have been received in the West. They are dated January 20 and 21, but the Primate sent his second letter only on January 25, after he had received a reply to the first one. In his first letter, Cardinal Tomasek expresses his joy, and that of Czechoslovak Catholics, at Czechoslovakia’s support for the conclusions of the Helsinki Follow-up conference in Vienna. And he says Catholics will pay particular attention to those parts of the agreement which make clear the obligations on participating states, including Czechoslovakia, regarding civil liberties and the right of believers and Churches to develop fully their religious life. “We expect,” he writes, “a complete reform of Czechoslovak law to allow the implementation of the pledges we made at Helsinki and Vienna.” The Cardinal goes on to say that the trust of believers and many others was shattered by the actions of the security forces against the peaceful rallies held in Prague on January 17 and subsequent days. The letter ends with an appeal to the government to start immediate negotiations with the Church and all citizens. Adamec’s reply to the Primate’s letter was printed in full in Rude Pravo on January 28. In it Adamec welcomes Tomasek’s comments on the conclusions of the Vienna Follow-up Conference and assures him that the government will seek to implement them. But while respecting Tomasek as a church leader “whose words have a considerable influence on Czechoslovakia’s believers,” Adamec disagrees with his “attempts to create relations with the socialist state by means of ultimatum.” He further accuses the Cardinal of being ill-informed as to the real nature and purpose of the events on Wenceslas Square. “In my opinion the real interests of believers, priests and the Catholic church would be best served by an objective, unbiased approach,” he writes. The Primate’s second letter deals exclusively with the police intervention in the unofficial Wenceslas Square rallies to commemorate Jan Palach (January 15 to 20). It is not true, Tomasek writes, that these rallies were provoked by foreign media, neither were the participants unruly. MORE BRATISLAVA DEMONSTRATORS TRIED (CZECHOSLOVAKIA) A court in Bratislava has sentenced a participant in the religious rights vigil held there on March 25, 1988 to two months’ imprisonment. Keston College sources in Slovakia report that on January 27, 1989 a Czech, Jiri Fajmon, stood trial accused of participating in the banned peaceful Catholic demonstration. The judge, Jan Jamrych, relied primarily on evidence supplied by a policeman, Stefan Kanton, who claimed to have seen Fajmon on Hviezdoslav Square, the site of the vigil. But Keston College sources reveal that Fajmon had only come to Bratislava that day and that Katón could not have known him, nor identified him in the large crowd, given that it was dark and raining heavily. In his defence, Fajmon said he had not been on Hviezdoslav Square at all as police had blocked it off before he arrived. He was arrested an hour after the demonstration had ended on his way to the railway station with a lighted candle in his hand. (Participants in the rally all carried lighted candles.) Jiri Fajmon, 24, comes from Liberec in north Bohemia. He was baptised a Catholic in 1981 and has signed the human rights manifesto, Chapter ’77. His prison sentence was not rescinded under the terms of President Husak’s amnesty of last October because of a previous conviction. In 1985 Fajmon was sentenced for criticising the government. Fajmon immediately appealed against his sentence and is still at liberty. A week earlier on January 20, the same court found another Catholic participant in the vigil guilty of “Breach of Public Order.” Karol Nagy from Bratislava was charged under paragraph 6 of law 150/1969 on misdemeanour, but because of the amnesty, sentence was not passed. — NEWS FROM OUR CONGREGATIONS — EGYHÁZI HÍREK — CLIFFSIDE, NJ Beszolgál: Szabó István világi lelkész Gondnok: ifj. Takács Mihály Magyar nyelvű istentiszteleteinket minden második vasárnap délelőtt fél tízkor tartjuk. A „sátoros” ünnepek alatt természetesen minden alkalommal összejövünk, s így például ez évben virágvasárnap és húsvétkor is tartottunk istentiszteleteket. A feltámadás vasárnapján a szentjegyeket kiszolgáltattuk. Ez évi közgyűlésünk példás rendben folyt le, s a lelkész, a gondnok és a főpénztáros beszámolói után a gyülekezet a következő tisztikart és képviselőket (trustees) választotta meg az 1989-es esztendőre: Szabó István elnök; Takács Mihály gondnok; Halász János jegyző; Szabó Ferenc főpénztáros; és Esik József ellenőr. Bergen County és észak New Jersey magyarságát szeretettel hívjuk és várjuk istentiszteleteinkre és összejöveteleinkre. Szabó István magyar nyelvű rádió szolgálata tizenötödik évéhez érkezett. Minden vasárnap délután hattól hét óráig hallható az adás a WRSU-FM rádió állomás 88.7 hullámhosszán.
