Folia Theologica et Canonica 5. 27/19 (2016)
SACRA THEOLOGIA - Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem., Cardinal Mindszenty and the Hungarian bishops against the communist dictatorship (1947-1974)
CARDINAL MINDSZENTY AND THE HUNGARIAN BISHOPS... 77 tinued and concluded into the Order 5/1949 which suppressed the school catechism - turned toward the question of secularization which new law was rapidly prepared by the Ministry and the Parliament. The statements and negotiations of the Bishop Conference - including Card. Mindszenty in person - were profitless. The meeting between Mindszenty and Ortutay took place on February 14"1 1948 without any positive conclusion. There was no intention by the Government for compromise: on June 16"' 1948 the Hungarian Parliament accepted the secularization of the entire educational system by Law 33/1948. István Barankovics - who represented the minority opinion - concluded his parliamentary speech: "This prepared new law certainly will get majority of sympathy of the Parliament; however it will never get the volitional and emotional acceptance of the majority of the Hungarian Nation.”1'' Mindszenty already on June 12,h - four days before the approval of the new law - sent his circular decree to the parish-priests17, wherein he fixed the primary principle: No priest or religious can undertake any teacher position in secularized school if it happens in the future.1* The dictatorial process had arrived to its prominent goal, when after many false critics and humiliating attacks Card. Mindszenty had been arrested on December 26lh 1948, then after a long inhuman torture he got a life sentence on February 8lh 1949. II. The Accord of 1950lw None the less many scholars argue about the Law 23/1947 as a positive step toward the religious freedom as compared with the formal - classified into categories regarding obligations and rights - system.211 Nevertheless, this regulation which came in force on December 4"1 1947 - against wide protests of the religious communities in Hungary - was the last step to suppress the religious freedom. The denominations had become equal because their limits, state-control, and the expected full loyalty toward the communist regime were equal. This act was communicated to the western countries as guarantee of religious freedom by the Democratic People’s Republic of Hungary. It was the first radical step to eliminate the religious attitude from the daily life of citizens and the society, as it manifested in the Stalinist dictatorship and the explicit plan of Mátyás 16 17 * 19 20 16 Mészáros, I., Mindszenty és Ortutay, 175. 17 Circ. 50001/1948. ls Mészáros, I., Mindszenty és Ortutay, 175. 19 Based on the documentary description of the debate by Gergely, J,,Az 1950-es egyezmény és a szerzetesrendek felszámolása Magyarországon, Budapest 1990. 20 See Gergely, J., Az 1950-es egyezmény, 7.
