Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Miroslav Kocúr: For God and Nation: Christian National Populism
For God and Nation: Christian National Populism rically and strongly in disfavour of regular members is subsequently reflected in its everyday existence. Regular church members’ participation in the process of choosing their leaders is close to zero; the rate of Catholic Christians’ involvement in efforts to reform this institution is not essentially higher. While these efforts are materialized in certain activities, mobilization of regular members remains an exception; in a way, it ensued from an apparent tension between double standards governing church community and civil society that offers to Christians a relatively comfortable asylum from impracticable church requirements regarding their personal, family or public life. In recent years, the Vatican faced several cases of public pressure with respect to appointing new bishops or dissatisfaction with Catholic hierarchs’ performance and, quite surprisingly, succumbed to it at times;22 however, these are exceptions rather than the rule. In an environment where development of civil society does not reach the level at which tensions stemming from double standards would be as obvious, the Catholic hierarchy enjoys relatively strong authority. Articulating its statements on the one hand or taciturnity on the other is very important for society in situations that call for positions and/or actions defined by values. Individual national administrative units of the Roman Catholic Church are only seemingly independent. The level of centralization and interconnection with the Holy See is absolute to such a degree that a mere trace of autonomous administration of any part of the Roman Catholic Church anywhere in the world that would not comply with the Vatican perspective has no chance of materialization. The church legislation does not allow for any polemic in this respect, not even theoretical. The chances of regular Catholics to influence important decisions by church establishments should therefore be perceived in this context.23 The liturgical reform that followed the 2"d Vatican Council was the most significant process of reflecting national specifics in practical church activities to date. In practice this amounted to authorizing the use of national languages during divine services and introducing various elements of national culture into the official ritual code. So it happened that folk dances, national chants and other folklore elements of local cultures not only became part of divine services previously practiced in Latin but they fully replaced them. The Catholic Church christened the process by a progressive term of inculturation that was supposed to express the centre’s willingness to respect national cultural specifics in practicing Catholic beliefs. In order to illustrate the distance the Vatican thus covered, it is important to realize 231
