Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1960-11-01 / 11. szám
FRATERNITY 9 the Habsburg Empire. It is no surprise to us to discover that, so far as central Hungary was concerned, the concept of nationalism was largely to be found being entertained by Reformed Church people. The Reformed Church at that time was some 99.8% of pure Hungarian stock, whereas the Roman Catholic Church included Croats, Slovenes, Slovaks, Germans, and other races. Thus it was natural for the Reformed Church almost without willing it to identify itself with the Hungarian national cause. But to counter the growing nationalism of the Hungarian element in the Empire, the Roman Church put forth the propaganda idea that for a nation to be prosperous and happy it should have only one religion, one constitution, and one national language. Emphasizing that these three ones were representative of the triple being of man as body, soul and spirit, they then called Catholicism “the Hungarian national religion”; and since Catholicism was wholly bound up with the constitution of the Empire, Protestantism was alleged to be a destructive factor in the unity of the nation. In 1830 the Roman Church sought to have the law changed in the matter of mixed marriages. As the law stood, if the father were Roman Catholic, then all children of the marriage had to be Catholics; if he were Protestant, his sons (but not his daughters) might be baptized as Protestants. The Roman Church now claimed all the children of a mixed marriage. The furthering of this claim turned the country upside- down all over again, and a regular stream of protests and deputations reached the royal Court; but all that the deputations were able to attain was a promise from the King that he would forbid that children should be forcibly taken from their parents and baptized, as had been so often happening, contrary to the law of the land. But the King did nothing to put a stop to what is called “ reversal”, whereby the Roman Church insists on claiming the children of a mixed marriage, although he left the Protestant party in the marriage the right not to change over to
