Fraternity-Testvériség, 1961 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1961-09-01 / 9. szám
2 FRATERNITY away from her, half of her entire population did not speak the Magyar language? A Hungarian loves his country fervently. Petőfi, the great poet of the Freedom Fight of 1818, said: “If I had not been born a Hungarian, I would want to be one. I would want to belong to a forsaken, the most forsaken of all people of the world." Stephen Széchényi, who is often called the greatest Hungarian, said: “I love you with all your faults.” These sentiments strike a responsive chord in the heart of every Hungarian. Being an American of Hungarian extraction, I treasure all that Hungary has meant to the world. I cannot be accused of being afflicted with intense nationalism for the land of the Magyars, because this is my land, my native land, and that fervent love is reserved for this, the most wonderful country in the world in which I live and which I love. What I want to do this afternoon is to look objectively at what so many people have proclaimed the Hungarian Truth, and to sec what lessons that intense devotion to the Hungarian Truth has taught and can teach the world. This afternoon on St. Stephen’s Day, the quiet beauty of this great Cathedral lends a great deal of dignity and meaning to this observance. Here in an Episcopal Cathedral a Protestant minister stands to bear testimony to the strong foundations of freedom and justice that were laid in Hungary by the first Catholic King. This in itself is a small symbol of the kind of unity which can and will, we firmly believe, free Hungary. Ferencz Deák, a great Hungarian statesman, said a long time ago: “The Hungarian people want to be the people of the truth, because in that truth they will find their law, their rights and their goodness.” It would be well for us to know that ever since St. Stephen received his crown from Pope Sylvester in the year of 1000, Hungary had cast her lot with Western Civilization. For years she was a buffer state against the onslaught of pagan hordes which threatened that civilization. In every crisis Hungary became a cohesive nation, knit to the truth she felt was hers and which she had to defend with her life. The greatest tragedy in Hungary has been always that a nation so dedicated to the truth was so often deprived of fully enjoying her inalienable right of complete freedom. The first document of freedom on the Continent was the Hungarian “Golden Bull” given in 1222 for the assurance of freedom for the people of Hunjrarv.
