Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Miroslav Kocúr: For God and Nation: Christian National Populism
Miroslav Kocúr boy is able to evaluate [the standard of living],” Bezák asked. “When somebody is bom in 1933, can he really assess years 1939 through 1942? When I look back at the time I was six or seven, I cannot tell whether I was well off. To say that we were all right because we had something to eat while others had nothing and because of that we were better off is very unfortunate. As a Christian, I would not dare set such measuring criteria.” This was the first time a high official of the Catholic Church in Slovakia publicly presented such an unambiguously critical opinion regarding President Jozef Tiso’s responsibility. All those who examine the issue politically, historically or as civil activists perceive the new archbishop’s statement with sympathies and satisfaction. Hui\qARÍAN Bishop In January 2009, Chairman of the Party of Hungarian Coalition (SMK-MKP) Pál Csáky made repeated public statements that ethnic Hungarian Catholics in Slovakia should have their own bishop. According to the SITA news agency that cited Csáky,13 an elegant solution would be if one diocese was led by a bishop of Hungarian nationality who would be a member of the Conference of Slovak Bishops (KBS).14 According to some authors, ethnic Hungarian Catholics in Slovakia have produced significant activity aimed at solving their pastoral and spiritual needs. In the meantime, they abandoned the original demand to establish a separate diocese; instead, they repeatedly demanded the KBS to appoint a bishop that would take care of the needs of ethnic Hungarian believers. They also submitted the demand to the archbishop for Bratislava and Tmava. According to György Herdics and János Zsidó, the initiative has been supported by 50,000 petitioners whose signatures have been sent to the Pope.15 According to an agency report by TASR that was run by relevant print and broadcast media on January 7, 2009, the KBS believes that ethnic Hungarian believers in Slovakia are taken good care of as they have priests and bishop vicars who speak fluent Hungarian. “A chairman of as political party should not enter this territory,” said KBS Spokesman Jozef Kováčik. “It is rather about scoring political points than about a true effort to tackle certain problems”.16 On a different occasion, Kováčik commented on public demands to appoint a Hungarian bishop for ethnic Hungarian believers by saying that “such opinions should not be [presented] through media but should be conveyed directly to the bishops”. According to Kováčik, Catholic believers 228
